The Strength of Sakura
by MischaUchiha09
Summary: SASUKE AND NARUTO HAVE BOTH BEEN TRAINED OUTSIDE OF THE VILLAGE, AND ARE NOW EXTREMELY POWERFUL. ITS SAKURA'S TURN, TO GET STRONG AND TO GET EVEN. SHE HAS WORKED HARD TO FORGET SASUKE AND THAT NIGHT, BUT SHE DIDNT EXPECT FOR THE UCHIHA TO RETURN:sasuxsaku
1. Prologue

okay i hafta put this on here first to make it very clear....i do NOT own naruto nore are these my own people/cartoon thingies....i just loooove sasuke and the naruto series sooo i had some ideas running in and outta my head and i wrote them down. this is my first story ever, so please...dont judge me. i would love to hear advice tho, harsh critics are better then no critics at all...thanks so much, hope u like it:)

_**Prologue- She just couldn't believe it. In all her life and in all her dreams she just could never grasp the idea of being a mother. And yet here she stood, a mere two feet away from a plastic baby crib staring down at her absolutely breath taking dark haired baby boy. He would every so often make little baby burbles in during his ever so pleasant sleep. She couldn't help but smile every time he did it. She knew for a fact that she wasn't ready for this, but she also knew that she had to do it. Not just for herself, or her son but for him. For the man she loved with her whole heart, the one she waited for after all this time. Even when she went away to get rid of the pain and the anger, she had some shred of pride thinking she had completely locked him out of her mind and her heart. But she sure didn't expect him to be different, to be saved in a way. And here is where she stood and realized that even though all was taken from her, it was only to give her the greatest gift of all. And at that moment the baby boy in the plastic crib turned his head towards his tear filled eyed mother and slowly opened his big onyx eyes. **_


	2. chapter 1:FOUR YEARS EARLIER

**Chapter 1**-_FOUR YEARS EARLIER._

'Running, that is most definitely a good idea at this moment. But for some reason my legs will not move', thought Sakura.

As she stared at her blonde haired comrade hit the dirty ground she knew that running would be her best option.

'Maybe a little screaming for help wouldn't hurt either', she thought as she looked up at the dark haired man with the crazy red eyes.

'Those red eyes,' Sakura thought ,'Sharingan !'

"You really haven't changed Sakura, when will you realize that you are nothing but merely a pawn in this little game. You will always be weak, one of those misfortunate losers that just show up but never win. All you'll ever know is death. Your friends, your family, your little boy toy laying on the ground at my feet. Its your life laid out for you all underneath your very little nose."

"that's not true, don't act like you know anything about me Sasuke-kun. In fact, you don't know anything about who I am or what I've been through," yelled Sakura.

"Oh, but I have little ninja. I know EXACTLY what you've been through. And now I've decided to end your pain," answered Sasuke.

As he went to kneel in front of Naruto, he began to grab Naruto's hair at the back to lift his face out of the dirt. When suddenly three figures walked up behind him carrying the rest of Sakura and Narutos team: Hinata, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino and Yamato. All of which were unconscious and badly beaten.

"your late," Sasuke spat out at the threesome, standing up to acknowledge the strangers.

"I'm sorry Sasuke honey, but these two wanted to play around with the little ninja brats," said the female, as she skipped over to Sasuke to hang on his left arm. As a way to apologize, from what Sakura was guessing. Sakura was hoping that nobody noticed that she couldn't help but cringe as the woman made contact.

"next time, stick to your orders," barked Sasuke, "you too Karin."

At that they all three nodded ,but of course they all turned their attention to the beaten pink haired girl watching from underneath a tree. The Uchiha soon enough turned his attention back to the tortured girl only to grimace at her.

"stand up," barked the man. She didn't move a muscle, too scared of something breaking the minute her weak body stood. She had no more chakra, she couldn't heal herself. And besides she didn't want to risk them lashing at her the minute she started glowing green. Or even worse, being taken hostage to be their own personal healer. No matter how much she cared about him, she would never be his slave.

"I said STAND UP," he yelled again, only this time she could have sworn she felt the ground shake.

She slowly stood as careful as she could, only to be grabbed by both arms by one of the men that was in sasuke's little "gang". he smelled like gasoline and wood, he was a tall, burly man who looked kind of like the hunchback of notre dame.

"hold her still Jugo, what ever you do don't let her go," said from what sakura could gather her name was Karin.

At that moment sakura looked at sasuke, only to see the hate and the anger nearly leaking out of his entire body.

She didn't know what came over her, one second she was a total rag doll being held up to stand by some creepy looking guy. And the next she had obliterated the ground behind her and was soon standing on her own watching the creepy guy aka Jugo, fall into her newly created hole.

She continued on with the rampage by knocking out the silver haired guy with a straight chakra punch to the front jaw. A for sure knock out point. Before his body hit the ground she had Karin pinned to the ground in copper wire tapped in kunai bombs. Sasuke couldn't catch her, he couldn't believe how fast she was moving. This ninja couldn't be the helpless pink haired girl he trained with everyday back in konoha. But then the thought settled in his head.

'this ninja IS the helpless pink haired girl i trained with EVERYDAY, i knows her weak points. I just have to use them, even if I don't want to,' thought sasuke.

"you know, im really tired of these little ring around the rosie games sakura. You would think youd learn that im a bad guy now," said sasuke a little too calm.

"and look what I have here, hmmm a half dead leaf ninja."

Sakura suddenly stopped running only to turn around and see sasuke picking up naruto and dangling him in front of sakura like a doggy treat.

"If you want him, come and get him sakura. Hes right here, for the taking," teased sasuke.

She had three options, she could save the others easily. Get far away as possible from sasuke and rescue naruto later. Two, she could fight him and try her best to weaken him until help came. Or option three, she could fight him, beat him, and save the day. All in all not dying. She was wavering towards option three of course. She couldn't leave her comrades who were also her best friends there to die by the hands of the man they had all risked their necks for to save. She had to do something, anything to save them atleast.

Sasuke only smirked as he saw sakura lock into place and then suddenly charge him with her right gloved hand in mid air tightly clenched into a fist. He dropped naruto only to charge her with his chidori sharp spear.

They were moving so fast towards each other, there was no way either of them could have stopped even if they wanted to. With a sudden jolt through her body her fist landed in a palm. As he continued to slide backwards into one of the mighty oaks in the forest he stabbed her in the stomach with his spear. With a gasp she halted and slowly slid to the ground, breathing as even as she could trying not to pass out. She watched as he climbed out of the hole he had made in the tree, from being pushed. He moved to the right of her and smirked at her.

"I told you, you'll only know death. And now look at yourself, your dying."

He first released Karin, as she stood up she noticed the slight green glow of her hand to his arm.

'a healer!how the hell….'thought sakura.

Even with the shock of it she smiled knowing she had broken his arm.

"what are you smiling about brat, sasuke-kun is never going back to konoha. And hes never going to be yours, so I don't see what there is to smile about," spat Karin.

Before sakura could retaliate with the very well thought out comeback, she started to feel heavy.

She had lost too much blood, she could tell by her low chakra and slow tingle in her right arm. She tried breathing through it, thinking 'okay sakura, its okay. Just wait for kakashi-sensei and team guy. It will be okay.' but there was not fighting it, the blackness came anyway. When she had made the decision to look up at the uchiha one last time, she didn't expect to be glared at. But he did, he stood there and glared at the pink haired shin obi until she finally laid her head back onto the mossy forest floor and closed her eyes.


	3. Chapter 2:ITS ABOUT CHOICES AND CONS

**Chapter 2**- _ITS ABOUT CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES._

'rain?'

'why am I out in the rain?' thought couldn't believe she was laying here, outside, dying and worse then that out in the rain.

'great, just great!' thought sakura.

As the water drops continued to trickle on her face, they started to slide towards her mouth. 'salt?' was the thought that came to her head.

"no, I want to see her. I want to make sure shes okay. Sakura! Im sorry, I'm so sorry I couldn't keep you safe. Im sorry, don't leave me please," yelled naruto.

She opened her eyes and tried to raise her right arm to comfort her friend, but her brain was obviously on hiatus because her arm didn't move an inch. But she did see her friend being dragged out of the room by two male nurses and watched as lady tsunade closed the door to her room. She heard whispers and then a harsh comment from naruto and then it was quiet, almost too quiet.

Sakura turned her head to the right to gaze out the window at her beautiful home, only to feel a sharp pain travel up her spine making her doze back into unconsciousness.

The second time she opened her eyes it was to see what the hissing sound was. She looked to her left to watch a female nurse putting, from what she could figure out was a pain killer, into her iv. As she watched the nurse leave, her eyes followed her to the door. They soon stopped on her blonde comrad.

"naruto…,"whispered sakura. He had pushed one of the chairs up to the left side of her bed and was fast asleep on folded arms on top of her sheet. She was now able to feel her fingers and toes so she slowly reached over to touch a lock of the sleeping blonde's hair.

"we tried naruto-kun, we fought so hard." sakura whispered as a single tear fell down her face.

She guessed that the pain killers where kicking in as she started to slowly feel heavy, falling back to sleep.

"sakura-chan…"came a whisper. She turned to look at the suddenly awoken naruto. She looked into his eyes, blue clashing with green. And right before she passed back out, she couldn't think of anything else to do but just smile at her friend.

"sakura, its time to wake up," came a harsh female whisper. "sakura, I know u can hear me. Its time to open your eyes shin obi. Its time to let everyone know that your truly okay."

As she started to open her eyes she concentrated on her body. To see if anything was still badly injured, she felt nothing. She felt like her self, completely healthy. She wanted to know for sure, so she started to sit up. once that was successful she leaned back onto her pillow, half sitting up half laying down. And proceeded to stare at the green coat and blonde haired womans back, who was only looking out the window not showing any attention to the fact that the young ninja was now awake.

The room she was in she recognized immediately. It was one of the hospital rooms they used often for emergency situations. It was on the far east wing of the konoha hospital, as she can see the monument out side of right window. She also couldn't help but notice that on that side of the room was the customary night stand with a thoughtful addition of pink flowers in a crystal vase, she smiled at the thought of ino putting them there. There was also windows with a bench attached at the foot of her bed. the window that the hokage was staring out of. To the left was the bathroom/ emergency equipment storage room. And towards the head of the bed to her left was her iv, heart monitor machine and some others. As well as the door leading out into the hallway.

"its about time, the council was starting to believe I had lost my touch," spat the hokage.

"they know better then to question you lady hokage, they are just scared that when they get themselves into some real trouble that you wont be there to save their royal hides," sakura smirked as she said this, remembering her and her teachers little inside jokes of the council.

At that the lady laughed, remembering the joke. She turned to face her pink haired successor sitting up with her arms folded, eyes shining brightly back at her, the hokage smiled.

"you should know that im honestly disappointed that you nor naruto could bring the uchiha back to konoha to receive his fate," said the monotone hokage.

At that, sakura lowered her head as far as it would go and started breathing calmly to help hold back the tears of sorrow and anger.

"I know lady hokage, I could have done more. But for some reason I didn't want to hurt him, I was weak in thinking that I could convince him to return,"said sakura. " I knew better, theres no way he will ever return to konoha…"

"but besides that point, im proud of you sakura. You showed complete control, all the way up until the end. None of us expected him to return, atleast not without problems. You took care of your comrades and that is something to be proud of. He could, if he honestly wanted to. He could have killed you all," answered tsunade.

Sakura could only hang her head, it was all a lie. A far from the truth answer to what really happened. She didn't protect anybody, if anything she put them more in danger from her recklessness. She should have saved as many of them as she could have. Ran them deeper into the forest one by one away from him so she could hide and healed them. But she didn't, instead she charged with full chakra to god knows what and came up on the losing end. She shuddered at the thought of him killing off each and everyone of her friends, seeing his smirk as he did so.

" well you are healed but I suggest you take one more day of rest. To help ease your mind sakura. Do you want visitors?" asked the worried teacher.

"not for a little while longer, I want to take the time to rest my brain and maybe think about what im going to do," mumbled sakura, raising her head slightly to make sure her teacher heard her.

" be wise my child, dont think with your heart think with your power and your gut. Your heart is what got you into that hospital bed in the first place," said tsunade.

Sakura nodded and glanced back down at her twiddling thumbs. As she heard the door close she sunk back into her bed, she was completely clueless at how she was going to make it all better. But she knew she had to, in some ways she had an idea of what was the best choice. But she kept voting against it, she didn't want to leave her life, her friends and her home. But she knew that if she stayed here, she would stay the same old sakura. She would always be weak and helpless, shed always have hope. Hope that someday he would return and sweep her off her feet and carry her to lady hokage and demand they be married. But of course that was all just a dream. Sakura shook her head with disgust at the thought of him, one: coming back and claiming he was a changed man, ' yah, never gonna happen honey,' thought sakura. And two: him wanting to marry her, 'ha yeah right, apparently he's got his hands full with that Karin chick.' but she needed to think of something, anything. She started going through her options, as she got out of her bed and sat on the over sized window seal/ bench staring out at her home. She thought long and hard about what she needed to do, and how she was going to do it.

It was a couple hours later that she had beeped for one of the nurses to come to her room. She had asked the nurse to please send for the fifth, she wished to speak to her.

"of course, ill send for her right away. Is there anything else I can do for you?" asked the nurse.

"no, thank you," replied sakura, "oh wait!" as the lady stopped half way out the door she looked back at the ninja, "yes ma'am."

"would you mind sending a message to naruto for me, letting him know im fine?" asked sakura.

"theres no need to send a message sweetheart, hes been in the lobby since he was released. He refuses to leave," said the nurse.

"oh, well um…let him know that after I speak to lady hokage that I will be taking visitors," smiled sakura. She would never get over how much he cared for his friends, it shocked her but pleased her every time he displayed such acts.

"yes ma'am the rest of the staff will be very pleased. Hes been ranting and yelling ever since he got told to stay in there. It will sooth very many headaches," said the nurse.

Sakura laughed, " I guess I should say im not surprised."

"ill let him know, he's missed you. He's been worried sick, he will happy to know that you want to see him first amongst all the others," winked the nurse.

She completely ignored her remark about her wanting to see naruto first ,"the others?"

The nurse smiled and replied," yes, the others. It seems you have the entire leaf ninja population sitting in the lobby. Waiting to hear any good news."

Sakura lit up completely. She went from being some what calm to almost jumping on the bed. "very well, ill see naruto first then ill allow the others in after I speak to him. Thank you for informing me."

"yes ma'am, of course. Ill let the master know,"replied the nurse as she exited the room.

Sakura was besides her self, she just sat there and smiled. She couldn't believe how much love they had for her. Even after she…..

And with that she frowned, she had almost lost them. Their lives where In her hands and she almost let them slip. It was then that she knew her decision was for the best. She would never again let konoha or any ninja of konoha be in harms way ever ,never again. And she most certainly would never be the reason for that harm. She had made a decision and she knew most wouldn't like it, but she had to do it. To save her home, a home she loved so much. And her friends who she could now call her family. And with that one final thought, the realization hit her…….She had to save her heart.

Sakura didn't know what time of the day it was when lady tsunade finally arrived. All she knew was that they had been sitting there for awhile. The hokage was sitting on the bench, legs and arms crossed staring and waiting for her apprentice to speak. And as sakura sat there on the edge of her temporary bed she didn't know what to say. She couldn't find the words to begin such a speech. She had her reasons and she had thought it out only minutes of requesting for the hokages presence. But now that tsunade was here, sakura found herself dumbfounded.

" lady hokage," she began. " im thankful for all that you've done for me, and for everything you've done for my village so far."

"mhm, what are you trying to say sakura?" questioned the hokage.

"im leaving," sakura said it as bluntly as she could. She knew she had to force the issue in order for it to become a reality, she didn't know how hard the hokage would fight against it. One of her best medical-nins going on a soul search. Highly doubtful of an okay and a pat on the back and maybe a 'be safe'.

But tsunade once again through her off guard with her answer, " I know."

Sakura was speechless, "you know?"

"yes sakura, I may not be sober half the time or else completely up to my ears in paperwork. But im more observant then you think. I'm your teacher and I know you. As well as I know that you would have made a good and honest decision on your next step. Which is why I trusted you to think of it yourself, without my guidance," replied tsunade.

"all ive come up with is that I need to go, to clear my head. And to get stronger. I am asking for your guidance now," sakura stated.

"I suggest….," hinted the hokage. "that you decide where you wish to go and I will make sure you get there and you stay in seclusion."

"seclusion, why would I be so cut off from the rest of the world?" asked sakura.

"think about it my apprentice," tsunade said this as she smirked.

And as if on cue they both said, "naruto."

" he will come and find you, and try to make you come back. And he may very well be able to do it. Hes already lost sasuke and I highly doubt hes going to let you go so easily even IF you explain your reasons," stated tsunade. " I want you to think of the safest most undisturbed place. Somewhere to completely reinvent yourself, to make a new sakura haruno."

Sakura thought about it, she could go to the fire temple. But there she would be with monks all day and night. And she didn't know how much of that she could take. She could go to the land of the waves, but she nixed that when she thought of how they gave her and the rest of team 7's cover up so quickly. Ninjas were always noticed there, no matter what. She then turned to people she trusted, and the only people outside of the hidden leaf village were the three siblings of the sands. Sakura and temari had become very close, ever since temari started dating neji almost 3 months ago. in the beginning Temari would come to konoha to visit neji ever other week when her and her two brothers weren't on missions. And shed stay with sakura since she wasent really allowed to spend the night with her 17 year old boyfriend. So it was only a matter of time before sakura and temari grew close, just like sakura and ino. She could count on the sand siblings to protect her secret and maybe even help her train.

"the sands….," mumbled sakura.

"ill send a message to the Kazak age at once, im sure Gaara will welcome u with open arms no doubt," stated tsunade.

Sakura only looked up slightly at the hokage, as she started to tear up. She didn't want to leave her home, it was written all over sakura's face. But she needed this, she had to do this.

Lady hokage only nodded her head and said, "very well." she then went for the door to sakuras room, only to stop and turn to the bed. She sat down on the edge closest to sakura and grabbed her for a sudden hug. Sakura burst into tears and soaked the hokages green coat that covered her right shoulder.

"I know its hard, it was hard for me to leave too. But you will learn from this, you will become stronger for this. And when you return you will be the sakura you've always wanted to be. Konoha isn't going anywhere, we will wait for you. You will always have a home here. Hell ill even make sure no one rents your apartment so it will stay just the way you will leave it," the hokage was rambling. And sakura let out a rough laugh at her last statement.

When sakura was able to finally pull away and wipe her face, she looked up at the hokage as she began to speak again.

" sakura haruno, im so very proud of you and who you have become. Ive taught you all I can, and now when u have surpassed even me you must go and find out other ways to become stronger. Im very proud to say that you were my apprentice, I could not have picked a better ninja to be my successor," and with that said the hokage smiled.

Sakura couldn't help but smile back, even when the hokage stood and began to leave. As she opened to door she slightly turned to smirk at sakura," make sure you come to my office as soon as you are released. I suggest a swift exit would be the best plan, so you wont cause any unnecessary uproars amongst your fellow shin obi. Especially a certain blonde one, it will be less of a blow that way," sakura flenched as she said this. Once the hokage left, sakura started thinking of a way to get around the village and away before anyone took notice. She would leave a note for naruto, of course he would be in the room in about five seconds so she had to keep a happy face for now. But how would she go about actually leaving. Surely the hokage had a plan, which was probably the reasoning for wanting sakura to come to her office as soon as possible. But her thoughts were soon cut off by that certain blonde haired loud mouth.

"sakura-chan! Oh I was so worried, im so happy your okay. Would you like anything? Do u want me to go get u something to eat. I have a free ramen pass," naruto said, while he practically pounced on the edge of her bed.

Sakura laughed, she would miss her loudmouth, overexcited partner. " no naruto, im fine. Im not hungry." she wouldn't be able to eat even if she was hungry, she was so sick to her stomach anyways.

"naruto , I…."sakura began but was cut off with a hand to her mouth.

"don't! its not your fault, its mine. I should've kept you safe, but I didn't…," naruto said as he released his hand from her mouth.

" its not your job to keep me safe, the mission comes first. And besides its my fault that everyone got hurt, even me. I should have moved you, all of you. But I didn't, I attacked before thinking. I was angry and I wanted to hurt him, I didn't think things would end up this way," said sakura.

" I know its not my job, but you're my friend," naruto said in the saddest voice shes ever heard.

She looked up at him on for a second before she reached for him and dragged him into a hug. It shocked him for a second but then he heard her hiccup. As he returned the hug he couldn't help but be grateful for such a good friend, someone he could trust and love. Sakura began to pull away slowly, "truce?"

"truce," he agreed. " lets just forget about it and move on, I wont talk about it if you don't."

"deal," she said. And they both laughed as the room mood changed from bitter to sunny.

Her friends came and went all day for the next day or so, she was certainly surprised as ino-san came in with tears in her eyes. She had gotten so many hugs, even some from people she wouldn't expect.

"er thanks," said a blushing sakura.

"no problem, thought it was the right thing to do," replied neji. Sakura did notice the slight blush on his pale face.

All in all she was showered with love and affection from everyone shes ever known and adored.

And at the same time she hated it all, she didn't want to reminded of how perfect her life was here in konoha. Reminded of how much she would miss it.

Soon enough the time came for her to be released from the hospital, and as she walked to the hokage tower she couldn't help but find herself in a daze. She was daydreaming of the time her and ino were outside playin in the flowers and when ino had given her the red ribbon for her hair. She smiled at the fond memory that she would cherish forever.

When she arrived at the tower she was greeted by shizune, the hokages somewhat secretary.

"come, shes been waiting for you," said the dark haired woman,

As they walked down the hall towards tsunade's office she became sad once again, this would be one of the last times she walked this way for god knows how long.

As they entered she couldn't help but notice the atmosphere, it was cold and yet all about business. She also couldn't help but notice temari, standing the left side of the large hokage desk. Temari smiled but only for a second before lowering her head in greeting.

" you wished to see me," said sakura. She couldn't help but notice that tsunade had not turned her chair towards sakura to reply.

" I thought long and hard about how we would do this sakura, and I think ive come up with a resolution,"stated the hokage.

She turned around to the desk in one swift motion and soon found the paper she had been searching for.

As sakura read it, temari saw the look of hurt and of shock suddenly take over sakura features. And since her left hand was holding the paper her right hand closed in a tight fist, turning her knuckles white. She then came back with, "when?"

" right now," stated lady hokage. Sakura looked up at the hokage only to be stared back at by light brown eyes.

Naruto didn't know what was going on, all he knew was that kiba showed up at his apartment a mere 10 minutes ago going on and on about how sakura was leaving and he didn't know where to but that naruto needed to stop her. And what was worse was that she was going alone. He made it to sakura's house just in time to see her walking down the pathway from her house to the front gates of konoha. She still had a good five minute walk so he had some time to knock some sense into her.

"SAKURA-CHAN," naruto yelled trying to get her attention.

She had abruptly stopped walking to turn around and grimace at him. Its only took a second but one moment she was standing there looking all pain stricken and the next, she was gone. He saw her running to the gates, he chased after her calling her name. once she had made it passed the gates she then stopped to turn to him," naruto you have to go back, you cannot come with me."

"why are you leaving? And where are you going?" naruto pleaded.

"I cannot tell you, im going for my own purposes. The same as you did with jaraiya," stated sakura.

He winced at the name of his late teacher. He had not heard the name since the funeral.

"that was different, he was my teacher. He was going to make me stronger so that I could bring…." naruto began to say but go interrupted.

"he isn't worth bringing back, atleast not alive," said a very angry sakura.

"you don't mean that, you know he still has some good in him," said a pleading naruto.

"I have to go, I have to know that there is something in the world besides death and pain. I have to do this, im sorry naruto," sakura said as straight faced as she could. She had to hold the tears, atleast till she was away.

She watched as naruto slowly slid to the ground landing on his knees, looking completely beaten up to the point of giving up.

He didn't raise his head but she knew she didn't want him to, she was scared of the look on his face. Of the pain and sadness that would take over both him and her.

"please sakura," he begged," don't leave me too."

She took a step back at his forwardness, she wasent expecting him to be hurting this much. Not over her. ' damnit even when im tryin to leave to help make things better, I only seem to make things worse.'

"im sorry naruto, I have to do this. Ill be back, sooner then you think." said sakura as she turned away from her comrade. "you'll will always be my best friend, my brother, my team mate. I will think of you everyday. I love you, naruto-kun."

As he moved to standing position and watched sakura walk down the path towards wherever she was going. He was completely taken over with rage, he was NOT going to lose her. Not like he did sasuke, he refuses to loose someone else that means the world to him. And with that he charged her, taking out copper wired kunai out of his weapon case on his right leg. He was going to capture her, bring her back to konoha and try to bring some sense into her, even it killed him.

He was of course screaming as he charged her, she took notice only to turn around and stare. She stood there in a completely calm stance waiting for him to hit her.

'its like she wants me to stop her,' thought naruto.

As he wrapped her in the wire and slammed all eight kunai into the ground to lock her in place. He looked down at her and smirked, " I wont lose you, I wont let you leave. You belong here, with all of our friends…" he kneeled down beside her to touch her cheek," with me."

She began to smile as though she liked the feel of his palm on her face, " thank you naruto."

And with that sakura poofed into smoke to reveal a mossy log. ' the subsitute jutsu,' thought naruto. He stood up and frantically looked around him, before he yelled,"SAKURRRRRA."

He then began to cry as he fell back on to his knees, " I love you too."

Sakura looked around her new loft in the Kazak age mansion. She liked it, it was very homey. She would begin basic training tomorrow with temari, which she was looking forward to.

She had been there a couple of hours and once the crying game was done she decided it was probably a good idea to unpack, it would take awhile before this place would begin to feel like home.

" how are you holding up."

Sakura whipped around to see a red headed figure leaning into her doorway.

"im doing better then I thought, thanks again for this Kazak age," she replied.

"since when do me and you use formalities sakura-chan?" he asked.

"sorry gaara, im just not used to u being all…well kazakageish…you know?"she smirked.

"ya, I know. I wander from time to time how im going to act towards naruto when he becomes hokage,"stated gaara.

She winced as he said naruto's name, he took notice of course.

"well, finish what your doing. I don't know what it is that you girls do to get settled. But uh come down to the kitchen to get yourself something to eat. Im sure your starving," said gaara.

"okay, thanks," sakura said as she turned back to her packed things.

"you know, this will feel like home before you know it," stated gaara.

She smiled and turned back to him, " I know." she sighed.

After he left she finished putting her clothes in the closet and her stuff into her bathroom. When she pulled the last item from her bag she couldn't help but tear up. She sat down on the bed and cradled the wooden square object to her chest and sighed and thought ' I will think of you everyday, and with each passing day I will miss you more."

"sakura, come on lets get something to eat. Im starving!" yelled temari as she knocked on sakura's door.

"coming," yelled sakura. She then stood up from the bed placing the picture on her nightstand. she opened the door from her room to the hallway, temari grabbed her arm and dragged a laughing pink haired shin obi to the kitchen.

"your going to need to be in tip top shape for your first day of training with me, I don't want any mishaps." stated the blonde.

" oh you think your so much stronger then me my friend, how little you truly know me," smirked sakura as she entered the kitchen behind the blonde.

"ill be training WITH you sakura, not actually training you," temari said as she took a seat on a stool, which made sakura make a confused faced.

"I don't get it, who's training me…us…then?" asked sakura.

"I will be," said a raspy voice behind her. When sakura turned around she couldn't hold back the shock on her face.

She would never have imagined that this man, of all men was willing to make her stronger. And she knew he could, she had heard the stories of his days. And she was ready for it, she knew it was going to be hard, probably harder then anything shes ever done in her even knew there would probably be days when she couldn't even walk back to her room from being beaten so badly. But she was ready.

She straightened her back and stood in front of him in a soldier fashion," im ready when you are…. Ebizo." and with that he smiled.


	4. Chapter 3:HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED

**Chapter 3- **_how things have changed….two years later_

'why is it so dark in here? And why is it so quiet?' thought kabuto as he walked around of the many underground hideouts of his leader, Orochimaru. He began to pick up his pace towards his masters bedroom once he heard the explosion. From underneath the door dust leaked out. In a panic state he kicked the door open only to be met with sunshine on his face, almost blinding him. The room had been completely destroyed, almost as if someone had come in, scooped it up in one swoop and threw it away. Orochimaru was no where to be found, no evidence of him either.

Kabuto walked hesitantly into the room, looking amongst the rubble for something.

" you wont find him," a voice said. " he no longer exists."

Kabuto stopped short, he wasnt shocked for he knew this day would come. He knew that orochimaru's apprentice/next body would rebel. But he didn't know it would be so soon, he began to panic. He suddenly fell to his knees, begging.

"I can help you find him, I can help you kill him too. Im a medic-nin so I can heal you at any time. I can be of service," he ended his begging rant with a sudden face first to the ground. As a way of bowing to the man who killed orochimaru.

"I don't need you, your useless to me," the man said.

A weird sound came to kabuto's ear, almost like scrapping. He turned his head that was still connected to the ground to the right only to see the back of a very large snake move across the ground towards his feet. He began to rise slowly so that he was still sitting on his legs.

"please, don't do this. I can help," he begged some more.

"no," stated the man.

As kabuto looked up to see the mans shadow come up behind him," sasuke, please. After all ive done for you."

"hn," snorted sasuke. " you've taken me from my home, you've tortured me with your experiements. And all you can say is after all ive done for you. You sound like orochimaru, right before I cut off his head."

Kabuto gasped, as he suddenly watched the snake round about to the front of him and stare down at him.

" but you wont die like he did, no. ill let you be useful," sasuke said as he turned around and started to exit back into the hallway from the now giant hole in the ground," but you should know, my snake friend here hasent ate in a while. And it takes a lot to satisfy her appetite."

As he walked away kabuto could have sworn he heard him laughing, ' hes more evil then orochimaru was,' he thought.

All sasuke heard as he walked forward to his room to gather his things was the two second scream and a loud crunch, he knew he was gone. As he turned to look back at the brightened entrance that was orochimaru's bedroom he sighed, ' what a bore. Now its time for some real action.'

After gathering all his things he met up with his newfound partner.

"took you long enough," said the silver haired man.

"don't forget who your talking to," glared sasuke.

"sorry, so where to boss?" silver asked curiously.

"well Suigetsu, how do u feel about snow?" asked sasuke, with his eyebrow raised.

"I can do snow," laughed suigetsu.

As they started on their journey, sasuke couldn't help but think of something.

' ill see you soon sakura, But not until I kill him.'

Sakura groaned as she looked once again at the bottom of the shower to see the water going down the drain was still black as night. ' why did I do this again….oh yah…NARUTO. The things I do for him.'

You see, she hadn't really thought through the idea of coloring her hair fully. She thought oh put it in, rinse and blow dry. But no, she didn't realized with her hair being soooo light that it was gonna take 45 minutes to color it, the smell made her woozy. And she didn't know it would take another twenty just to get the stuff out, the things she did for her loved ones. She sighed.

She had to do it though, if she wanted to see him. If she wanted to be there to atleast witness the wonderful day, it was already bad enough she missed him and hinata's wedding. Yes you heard me right, hinata and naruto are married, and expecting I might add. Sakura had only known because of the invite left on gaara's desk, 'your cordially invited to the joining of uzumaki and hyuga.' she cringed at the thought of what his face might have looked like when he wanted to invite her but didn't know where to send the invite. But sakura made up for it, sending him and his bride a basket with various items and roses to hinata with a note saying 'take care of each other' and of course a long written letter to naruto explaining that she was 'okay' and would 'be home soon'.

'yah, that was almost a year ago kami,' sakura thought to herself.

She didn't expect to be gone this long, once she started in with training and studying the different hidden ways of healing jutsu. She found that time just seemed to slip away. Still though she had missed so much, especially when temari and kankuro returned last week from a mission given by their own little brother, gaara, the sands fifth Kazak age. Sakura had learned that their mission was to take and bring back some special needed information for the Kazak age to the hokage of konoha. Sakura had found out that the hidden leaf village looked exactly the same of course, something she was grateful to hear but she had also learned of the very amusing and yet random bondings amongst her fellow comrades. Temari and neji had become distant a couple months after sakura left, and she was sad to hear that they had ended but happy it was on good terms. Even though sakura knew that temari missed him, she kept that little known secret to herself. Sakura was besides herself with laughter when she found out that her very best friend, ino had fallen completely smitten with a certain troublesome boy, shikamaru. And she could not help the shock when she heard of kiba and ten-ten.

"that was random," she said.

"well you never know, I don't ever recall them ever actually speaking to each other," temari recalled.

"maybe theres no speaking involved," winked sakura.

"sakura chan," temari said as she blushed.

Yes all of her friends were happy and living life to the fullest. And now here she was finally ready to visit. Yes that's right….visit. She wasnt going back, in fact she didn't know if she would ever go back. She liked the sands, it was her home now. And with that she stepped out of the shower once the water was crystal clear.

"you know, I didn't think id ever see the day when haruno sakura would be a brunette." smirked temari as she looked up from her seat on the countertop.

"its just a cover up, so no one will know who I am," explained sakura.

"I don't see why you just don't return, its not like we could train anymore. Even ebizo has said that you've surpassed him," stated temari

"if I have surpassed him, then why cant I beat him?" asked sakura as she began to cover herself with a towel.

" I don't know, maybe your thinking too much into it," answered temari.

Sakura shrugged "besides, im not ready to go back. I don't know if ill ever be."

"you will, you love konoha too much to stay away forever." stated her blonde haired friend.

Sakura sighed .

" so why color the locks, when you can just keep using the transormation technique?" temari asked.

" because im going to be there for three days, I cant hold my chakra for that long. It will be much easier to just change my face then my whole head," sakura stated.

Sakura had learned the transformation jutsu technique two weeks after moving to Sunagakure. Only so she could walk amongst the people, it drove her crazy to be locked up in a mansion like some fairy tale princess. So ebizo one day interrupted her meditation to hand her a very large scroll. It was old from the way it had packed on dust and it even had been crinkled at the end, sure signs of being very aged. It took her almost a week to get it down completely. But once she did, she used it as often as she could, to make the technique stronger.

"its because you have such exceptional chakra control," remarked Ebizo when temari asked how sakura had gotten the technique down so quickly.

It made her proud that some of her learning were showing. Of course she had learned a lot of things since she came to the sands, she most definitely was much stronger. She has beaten temari and various jounin of the sands to prove it. every time she asked kankuro for a battle, he would always smirk, shrug and sit . Where ever he was standing, hed sit down. She never understood that, so at some point she just gave up. She attempted gaara one day, it had gotten all the way to the point that gaara and herself were completely beaten up, it was a tie so far when one of his subordinates came into the circle and suggested the Kazak age come to the hospital immediately. She had only learned later that a team of young genins where attacked by some chunins from the sound village and were badly beaten. They needed the Kazak ages presence to make a decision on what to do. Sakura never found out what gaara had chose but has seen the now healthy genins still running around doing missions around the village. They never battled after that, she would never know the outcome.

"sakura-chan…," yelled temari as she frantically waved a hand in sakuras face.

"hn, what?" mumbled sakura

"you were daydreaming again," smirked temari.

"sorry," sakura mumbled again.

"its okay, im used to it. So you must be excited. Naruto uzumaki, the sixth hokage,' temari said in such a dream like state. Like she knew a celebrity and was in total awe of it.

"its still naruto, still the loudmouth, over excited, blonde haired guy," sakura said in a sarcastic tone.

"oh I know, but still. Did u honestly believe hed ever do it. Hes really the hokage, and he never even went past being a genin. Lucky bastard," spat temari as she hopped off the counter to go lounge on sakura's bed. Sakura only laughed as she pulled her tight black shorts on. She then went into her closet and grabbed her thin black corset. She put it on and zipped up the side. She grabbed her white kimono and put on her black ninja sandals. She walked out of her closet, kimono over her left arm. As she went to one of her drawers she grabbed her black silk sash. She went back to her closet to look at herself in the mirror as she put the kimono on and tied the sash around her waist. As she stared at herself in the mirror she couldn't help but think of the changes in her body.

When she first came to sands she was skinny, A cup with hardly any curves at all. Short pink hair and her face was pretty much all eyes and forehead. But now, she was maybe a couple inches taller, a good full C cup, she definitely had some curves, as she turned to the side to look at the body part she hated 'its too damn big,' she groaned. And she's wasn't pink haired anymore, 'that's for sure' she thought as she gazed at the wet dark colored locks. And her eyes and forehead had learned to mingle with the rest of her, so she wasn't all eyes anymore. If she had a choice of words, shed say she was some what attractive. But she wouldn't know what the male population thought, they didn't ever see the real sakura, she sighed.

"yes, we know your beautiful. Now please, for my sanity. Go dry your hair so we can go, it's a two days walk and I don't want to waste any time." temari spat that last word out with dominance.

"you know patience is a virtue, hes going to be there even if we leave now or an hour from now," sakura smirked.

"who?" asked temari, as she watched sakura walk to the bathroom.

"who do you think," sakura giggled and then said in a dreamy voice," neji-san, oh neji-san ive missed you so much."

"oh, you brat," temari spat out as she through a pillow at the now closed door to the bathroom. Only to hear laughter coming from inside of it.


	5. Chapter 4:VISITING HOME

**Chapter 4- **_visiting home _

"you know, I don't see why we have to do this, I mean why her?" the silver haired ninja asked.

The man in front of him stopped and turned around, especially in a blizzard you could see the anger burning out of his skin. " because I said so."

And with that sasuke turned back around and started climbing the mountain path again, trying not to get blown off by the violent blizzard winds. It wasn't long after that the entrance to the hideout was found. He knew by the irregular looking tree marking the entrance.

"stand back," sasuke ordered.

After suigetsu stepped back, sasuke walked up to the now pronounced blank space on the side of the mountain. " fire ball ninjutsu," sasuke spat out after his hand signs.

The fire ball had cleared a way into the mountain, as sasuke started to enter suigetsu staggered slowly behind him.

"do you think this is wise boss, going in without knowing whats in there?"

"I know whos in there," sasuke noted as he walked inside.

They walked down a lean path deeper into the mountain before entering into a thick wooden door.

"it smells like bat crap in here," said continued down away then randomly took a sharp turn into what the silver haired ninja could decifer as a bedroom. As sasuke came to a halt in the middle of the room he swung around to face suigetsu, sharingan activated.

"what," suigetsu whispered.

"im guessing orochimaru is dead. That would be the only reason you would come here to ask for my help," said a very angelic voice.

" who said I was asking," stated sasuke.

" oh sasuke-kun, you always were the fiesty type. Its what I like about you," the angelic voice said followed by a very sexy laugh.

" im not here for your compliments on my personality, Karin. I came to TELL you that your going to help me," sasuke demanded

Suddenly there was a hand on sasuke's chest, she was standing behind him. " no need to bark orders uchiha, you know id help with anything you need," she said as she walked around to his front. Never raising her hand from his body, when she rested her hand squarely on his chest she stopped and began to do circles down his body to his pelvis," ill help with ANYTHING," she smirked.

But soon the little sexual fantasy she had going was stopped when sasuke slapped her hand away, " sorry I don't fuck dirty animals." he said straight to her face before walking back around her and passed suigetsu and almost out the door before he turned around to speak to both of them," we are leaving…now."

Suigetsu smirked after his "boss" left, he looked back at Karin only to let out a low key chuckle.

"well, welcome to the happy and always cherrie gang, im suigetsu the guy with the actual personality. And you are?" said a sarcastic silver haired ninja, who also stuck out his hand for a hand shake.

" Karin, stay out of my way," she said as she walked passed him and out the door following sasuke.

' woah talk about your sexual frustration,' thought suigetsu.

"what, no hand shake or high five. No welcome to my lair how bout some lemonade?" yelled suigetsu as he skipped out of the room to meet up with his boss and new team mate.

"so wait let me get this straight so I don't screw it up," said a very frustrated blonde. " you're my good friend from the land of waves and you've come to visit for a little while. And you'd thought it would be a memorable experience to visit the konoha village and also meet the new hokage," temari was rambling.

"yes, and my name is michka haruzo," said sakura.

" why did you keep your last name so similar?" asked a curious temari.

"I didn't want to give you a headache," stated sakura.

"oh, thanks kami,"smiled temari.

"mhm," sakura smiled back.

But her smiled faded, as they began to see the top of the main gates of honoha.

" I cant believe how much it looks the same, I would have thought something would have been different," stated sakura.

" well you know sak…michka, konoha is all about history. I don't think they will ever change," smirked temari.

Sakura had went ahead and changed her "face" a couple hours before, just in case. She now had purple eyes, from what temari said, and her face was a little rounder. She actually made the smart comment of ," you kind of look like hinata." sakura only laughed and gently slapped her friend on the back.

As they entered the hidden village, sakura couldn't help the feeling of eagerness suddenly hit her. She wanted to find all her friends and get them into the biggest bear hug she could. But she saddened when she remembered she couldn't, she was on a low profile. She was supposed to be quiet and shy, and a little speechless almost like a mute. She humored herself, she is kind of like hinata.

Once they entered the city, sakura and temari went to the hotel. Temari had to report to tsunade, just like your supposed to when outside ninjas are visiting from other countries. And since sakura is michka, a non-ninja, she would need to just relax in the hotel while temari went to the tower herself.

"I don't see why I cant just go with you, arent I supposed to be pretending to want to meet the hokage?" said a sulking sakura as she sat down roughly on the bed. Watching temari come in and out of the bathroom taking stuff in such as shampoo and such.

"yes, the hokage also known as naruto. Not tsunade. Besides me and gaara agreed that since you wish to stay indescreet with everyone, it would be best to stay away from powerful beings. Such as the lady hokage," sighed temari as she stopped outside the door.

"meaning….,"mumbled sakura while temari went inside the bathroom rolling her eyes at sakura. She didn't answer her question till she came back into the room.

"meaning that we don't know if lady tsunade will know its you or not. She might just blow your cover. Especially since shes been wanting you to come back so badly, do I really need to remind you of this," temari raised an eyebrow at soon continued to go through her bag to look for whatever she was looking for.

Sakura didn't need reminding, nope not at all. For a while she was worried that lady tsunade would send jounins or ANBU over just to get her. The hokage was that desperate, she needed sakura back. It had started when first naruto became so depressed that he wouldn't even train, it took kakashi, kiba and neji to pull him from his depression. And honestly, if he had not gotten half a brain and realized that hinata had a huge crush on him. Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if he would have gone back to his sad like state. Hinata saved him, in so many ways. Sakura would have to find a way to truly thank her. That was the first time tsunade attempted to reach sakura, she had been gone six months. And the second and last time trsunade tried was about 7 months ago, when there was an outbreak in konoha. It was so lethal that it killed half of the western end of the village, they were able to contain it and find a cure of course. But they were still at loss from how many innocent people died. Sakura would never forgive herself for that, she had found out from a missionary while out patrolling for a kidnapped child. And only received the letter after she returned to the sands, she was already too late. Almost as soon as she came to a decision to not leave, gaara had said they had found a cure and that all was well in konoha. At that news she had felt like she had abandoned her home, that she honestly was not worth their love anymore. She told gaara to send a letter back saying she had left the sands about 8 to 9 months before. And that he didn't know where she was.

"why would you like me to tell her such a dirty lie, hn sakura-chan?" asked gaara, in a sarcastic tone.

"because she'll never forgive me if she knew the truth. That I wished to stay out of it," mumbled sakura and she looked at her toes. She couldn't face him, she was too ashamed at her words.

That was the last time she ever heard from lady hokage, she didn't know if tsunade had just given up on her or if maybe there was nothing she was needed for.

"sakuuura….hello…hey!" yelled temari as she began to shake sakura by her shoulders.

"w-w-w-what, oh sorry temari…daydreaming again," said a shy sakura.

"yeah I noticed, and is that shyness I smell. Wow your really into that costume there haruno," temari smirked.

Sakura laughed.

"well im off, I don't know when ill be back. If you leave the room make sure you either leave a note so I can find you or stick close," said temari as she walked to the door.

"I know my way around teme," said a sarcastic sakura.

"I know, just don't want you wandering off is all," she smirked and at that left the room.

Sakura looked around slowly, wandering what she could do. She finally went over to the window that overlooked some parts of konoha. They were on the third floor so it was pretty high,a good clear view. She was glancing around at all the very familiar buildings, she could see the academy. And the flower shop, she hoped to see ino -san walking out soon. To atleast see her face, she missed her so much. After scanning the right side of town she finally looked to her left only to see a ball of blonde hair walking down the street. In a hiss her breath had left her, she had to tell herself to breathe, to put air back in her lungs. She watched him slowly walk forward then he took a sudden left, towards the ramen stand she guessed. All of a sudden her stomach grumbled, of all times. She decided now would be a good time to do what lady tsunade once said, ' go with your gut.' and with that she quickly exited her room, down the stairs and out the front slide door. She then slowed her paced to not seem too eager as she followed the blonde haired shin obi. As she got to the ramen stand she took a deep breath,' okay you can do this. Just breath.'

As she entered the stand, she frowned. He wasn't there. 'hmm, I could've sworn…oh well.'

"is there anything I can get you miss?" asked the man behind the counter.

"oh um, no thank you. Not today," sakura smiled at him.

Just as quietly as she entered, she exited. She walked back towards the hotel except this time she decided to take a short cut down an alleyway she used to take when she was younger to get home. As she turned right to enter the alley she was yanked by her arm, it being twisted up into her shoulder blades and her face being pushed into the side of the building.

"is there a reason why your following me little one?" the man asked in a very breathless voice.

"I-I-I wasn't following you sir, I was simply really excited about ramen. Its been awhile since I had any," gasped sakura.

"whats your name?" asked the man.

When she didn't answer he pushed her harder against the wall, only making her squirm and gasp some more.

"mischka….mischka haruzo," she said loudly.

She tried to breathe slowly to help calm her down, but all he did was push her more into the wall.

"well mischka, if you love ramen so much. Then why didn't you get any?" asked the man.

Sakura didn't know what to say, her brain was on total melt down at how much she was freaking out. She started to go through excuses in her head but nothing that made sense came up. She almost just gave up and was going to tell him the truth.

"do you mind uzumaki," said a very irritated female voice.

The man looked to the right and laughed. "id really like to bring my friend back to sunagakure with me, and in ONE piece," the girl spat.

" ha, shes with you?" said the man, his tone lighter. He still had not let sakura aka mischka go.

"yes, now give me back my friend. Your not hokage yet mister," said temari.

He released "mischka" only to watch her crumble to the ground, sakura thought it would be a good ploy to seem weak.

"thank you sir," said a breathless "mischka".

"um yeah, whatever. Look temari I don't mind you bringing friends into the village. Just make sure your "people" don't follow me. It gives me the creeps, k?" naruto asked.

"why on earth would anyone want to follow you around?" asked a curious temari.

"beats me, ask her," he said while pointing at sakura.

"hm, ill have to make sure and ask her when she wakes up," she smirked as she looked down at her friend who had "passed out." temari shook her head,' a little over dramatic don't you think, sakura?'

" okay well I have to go, hinata is waiting. See you tonight, at the dinner?" the boy said as he was walking in the opposite direction.

"oh yeah, for sure. Im here on the sands behalf. And be nice to my friend, shes coming too," she shouted at the blonde haired boy as he glared at mischka during his retreat.

"ugh, fine. Ill try to make a better impression tonight. It was good seeing you. Later," he shouted running away.

"you know there are better ways of getting attention," temari smirked.

Sakura rolled over onto her back, " I thought it would be easier then explaining myself."

"obviously," temari giggled, " fainting always does work."

As temari helped sakura off the ground and dusted her off she couldn't help but laugh at her friend some more.

"shuddup," spat the brunette. But that only made it worse, temari was in a fit of laughter and only raised both hands in surrender as sakura stomped off back to the hotel leaving the blonde there.


	6. Chapter 5:the sixth HOKAGE

**Chapter 5- **_the sixth HOKAGE_

As sakura stood in the over sized bathroom of the hokage mansion, she couldn't help but notice that the person looking back her wasent…well her.

She came to the pre-ceremony party with the happiness of seeing her friends and her teacher all over again. She couldn't wait to see how everyone had changed, and the night started off great. Even with the awkwardness between neji and temari, it had started beautifully. 'I knew they still liked each other,' thought sakura.

Temari had gone with the story as planned, sakura was mischka a friend from the waves and such. And everyone accepted her with open arms, as sakura expected. What she did not expect was the ANBU messenger to run into the dining room interrupting lady tsunades grand speech about how much naruto has grown from a prankster to a completely honorable ninja of the hidden leaf and now to hokage. Sakura watched as lady tsunades face went from irritated, to shocked to devastated. Everyone of course noticed but did not move, atleast not until the fifth hokage literally collapsed into her chair. Everyone was on their feet. Shikamaru, naruto, kakashi and kiba were at her chair trying to fan her down.

"what is it granny hokage?" asked a worried naruto.

She was still mumbling ," no…no…no…it..it ..cant be."

"what hokage, what has happened," kakashi asked now.

Lady tsunade soon came back to reality only to realize everyone was hovering over her.

" step back from me, im fine. I just needed to soak in the information I have just received. Oh its so horrible," the hokage choked on the last part.

As everyone went slowly back to their seats, everything was very unsettling.

It was a little while before anyone said anything.

"well this sure is a party," joked kiba.

"this is not a party," spat tsunade.

Everyone turned their heads in shock to the hokage at the end of the table.

She then turned her head slightly to the left, at naruto. Slowly placing her left hand over his right hand on the table, as a sign of comfort. Naruto looked at everyone to his left confused, then looked back at her. Only to notice that the great sannin, the almighty tsunade, was crying.

" shes gone," choked tsunade, as her head fell so low it almost hit the top of the table.

As she began to cry, naruto still didn't understand. Even when he looked at all his other comrades and noticed that he was the only one that didn't understand.

"granny tsunade, who is gone?" he questioned.

She lifted her head to look at him with a are you stupid look on her face.

"……sakura," she whispered.

Sakura was stopped stunned. She knew her eyes were as big as saucers. Her, dead. What? ' umm hello im right here, I do believe im alive and kicking,' she thought. 'oh well, of course they wouldn't know because Im in a stupid disguise.'

Sakura looked to her left to see temari gawking at her, she was as surprised as sakura was.

"how," naruto demanded. Skaura had just now noticed that he had pulled away from the table and had both fist against the wall, both white from pressing into it.

" we don't know," the hokage answered.

Naruto whipped around to glare at the hokage," you don't know," he yelled.

Tsunade replied with," we are working on it, from what we can gather she was being used as a slave. We don't know what happened. Her body is being brought back as we speak. We will know once we do an autopsy."

"your going to cut up your apprentice, to get answers. You loved her like a daughter, how could you do that?" yelled naruto as the hokage began to rise from her seat.

"I know what she was to me uzumaki, theres no need for you to remind me. I am reminded everyday that she is not here. But I am still the hokage of this village and I will do what I need to for this village," she said in monotone as she slammed her fist into the table making it tremble," no matter what."

And at that she sat back down at her seat at the table and proceeded to eat the rest of her dinner. Ignoring the many ninja's and citizens gawking at her and naruto,

Naruto left the room with such a sudden out burst, some were actually afraid to let a very pregnant hinata go after to comfort him. He didn't return for the rest of the night.

It was early morning when temari shook sakura awake.

"come on, get your things. We are going home," temari said quickly.

"home?" sakura asked while wiping the sleep from her eyes.

Temari stopped in mid step to the bathroom, "yes home. Naruto has canceled his hokage ceremony and I highly doubt youd want to be here when your "body" arrives or when they have your funeral."

Sakura sighed as she lifted herself out of the bed to get ready for their long journey back.

She didn't know what she was going to do, but she knew she had to do something.

"maybe I can write a note saying that it was a false rumor. That im really alive and that im coming home," she thought out loud.

" are you going home?" asked a curious temari as she caught up to her friend.

They were already a half days walk back to the sands by this time.

"I don't know, part of me does want to go, but other parts are still kind of against it. I feel like I haven yet proven myself that I am stronger," answered sakura.

Temari shrugged," well theres only one way to find out."

Sakura stopped and looked at temari, who turned around to look at her friend. "your going to have to do it sometime, he wont be alive forever. And he knows. Maybe hes now weak enough for you to beat him," she smirked.

As sakura caught back into step with temari," ha very funny," she said.

As the smoke started to clear, he could see the entrance to the cage. And as he walked forward he smirked as he started to hear a low snarl coming from behind the bars.

" theres no need to be angry jugo, im here to free you. But only if you'll help me achieve my goal," said a very drained uchiha.

" and what is this goal of yours? Obviously you are desperate, for no one has dared to challenge me for fear of losing their life." said a dark and deep voice.

" im on a mission, to avenge my family. My deranged brother decided to rid them all, so in return I wish to obliterate him," sasuke stated.

"hmm the uchiha clan eh, I have heard such a story before. But is it true, are you the real sasuke uchiha?" the voice asked.

" have I not proven myself already, by making it down here?" asked sasuke.

Yes the pathway to the volcano was treacherous, it had guards everywhere. Each one putting up a hard fight, even he stood there panting with exhaustion. He didn't care how the other two were holding up really. His most important member of the team was on the other side of this sealed cage, and only he knew the jutsu to get him out.

"will you help me?" yelled the uchiha once more.

" release my seal, and I will do your bidding. All I ask is for freedom once your goal is complete," said the voice.

" what you do once itachi is dead is your choice," sasuke said.

"then set me free, and I am yours." stated the voice.

Sasuke turned to the right and walked towards a desk that had been built into the rock wall. He searched through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He soon came back to where he was, directly in front of the seal. He unrolled the scroll in his hand and laid it out on the floor, as he did the hand signs he could feel the ground start to shake with resistance. It was as if the earth was protesting to let this monster out. When sasuke finished the jutsu he took his hand and placed it on the seal mark on the scroll. He then took out a kunai and stabbed his hand, dead center, he didn't even flinch. The gates then began to open.

It was times like these that sakura loved being outside. The air was warm, the fire beside her was perfect. All her friends were safe and she had no cares in the world, just her and the forest. She laid on her sleeping mat with her hands behind her head just gazing at the stars when a certain mumbling caught her attention.

" mmm yessss, mmmm….," temari sighed In her sleep. And as she turned over, sakura could have sworn she heard her say ' neji-san'. sakura giggled, but not too loud.

She wished she could feel that way with or about somebody. Almost all of her friends were either with or thought of someone. Yeah sure there was that one time she thought she had something, but that feeling hasnt struck her in a very long time. She could honestly say that she was very much over the uchiha, and she would say it with pride. Because being in love with someone whos completely hopeless is kind of a lost cause. So getting over him was the easy part, learning to forgive him, well that's another story. Sakura doesn't know if she ever can really forgive him, yeah she understands but she still in some ways hates him for it. 'anyway,' thought sakura. She hasn't thought about him in a long time and she sure as hell isn't going to start now. And with that she continued with her star gazing, only to see a shooting a star. And at that exact moment that the star skimmed across the sky, only one word shot through her mind,'sasuke.'

"ah, crap," sighed sakura as she put her pillow over her face and soon fell asleep.

Sakura sighed, she knew what she had to do. And damn it, she was going to do it.

"sensei," she said.

As ebizo looked up from his paper he had been reading he couldn't help but notice that sakura chan had her full gear on.

Sakura looked down at the man sitting at the table reading his paper and drinking his coffee, 'crap maybe I should let him finish.'

"oh never mind, ill just talk to you after breakfast." she said as she started to back out of the room.

" you want to battle today leafy?" he asked as he sipped his coffee. 'leafy ugh,' thought sakura. He had given her that name because of his hatred for konoha, she despised it.

She stood up straight with her head held high, "yes."

He smirked," very well. Meet me outside in ten minutes."

And with that she turned on her heels and charged out of the room. She was so nervous, she didn't even know if she had the nerve to ask him and now she didn't know if she could go through with it. The first few rounds of battle verses him didn't go so well.

_flash back:_

"_you giving up yet?" ebizo asked._

_Sakura was laid out on the ground, barely moving. She didn't know what happened, she was in control. She hit him a couple times almost knocking him to the ground but when she went to do her spring leaf jutsu she found herself laying face first in the dirt._

"_if you don't learn to control your chakra better, you'll never be able to beat me," he sighed. " go back to your room and rest up. We will train tomorrow and you can battle me again when I think your ready."_

_And with that ebizo signaled to one of the guards watching from a distance to carry sakura back to her room, where she stayed the rest of the day and all night._

_End of flashback_

It continued like that for months, she was surprised he even agreed to it so early in her training in the first place. She had only been in the sands for 5 months. But today was different, today she was confident. Nervous but confident, something was just on today.

'you know what that it is kami, don't deny it,' inner sakura stated.

Sakura rolled her eyes and continued to the training grounds to warm up. She was ready, to fight for her life.

"where the hell is she…" wandered temari. As she searched room by room of the mansion trying to find her lost friend.

"hey you," she called out to a passer by," do you know where sakura-chan is?"

"yes ma'am she is at the training fields with ebizo," replied the guard.

'crap,' thought temari as she raced down the stairs and out to the back of the house.' surely she wasent serious.'

_Flashback_

"_temari,…temari!" yelled sakura._

_Temari was being shaken awake by a very over eager sakura. _

"_ugh, its too early. We have such a long walk ahead of us before we reach home. Five more minutes." said temari as she rolled back over, her back now facing sakura._

"_I figured it out, I finally figured out a way," sakura yelled._

"_a way to what?" mumbled temari._

"_a way to finally make my decision on returning to konoha or not. I was in complete confusion up until this morning when I had an epiphany." sakura explained._

"_oh yeah, and whats that?" and not at all interested temari asked._

" _im going to battle ebizo, again" sakura said bluntly._

_Temari was wide awake at this point, she rolled over and sat up Indian style. Only to reach over to her friend and touch her forehead," are you okay?"_

" _yes im fine, im perfect," said sakura._

" _did you sleep at all last night?" _

"_yeah, some… okay maybe not, but still. it's a good plan." _

"_wait, what exactly is the plan?"asked the blonde._

"_well okay, im going to battle him right. Well If I lose I stay in the sands, and if I win then that means ive successfully surpassed ebizo which means im strong enough to return to konoha. There! it's a good plan," she ended with a smile._

"_uh huh," a completely dazed and confused temari nodded in response." are you sure your okay, you didn't like sniff the dry wood a little too much while I was asleep."_

"_silly, dry wood cant get you high. But we need to get going so I can rest up for tomorrow. I want to be my best when I fight ebizo." sakura said as she stood up and walked over to her palate only to start packing things up._

_Temari just rolled her eyes and flopped back down onto her mat ,' its too early for this.'_

_End of flashback_

'she couldn't possibly be serious,' thought temari, ' you cannot make a decision off of chance.'

But sure enough as she entered the training field she saw her friend stretching and warming up for battle. Temari knew that if she tried to stop her shed find some other way to have the decision made for her. So all temari did was sigh, and then walked over to the decorative bench that was neatly places in the rose bushes and got good and comfortable to watch a good battle. It was inevitable so she might as well enjoy a good beating.

Sakura was nervous, yes but she was also ready. And as she stood in ninja stance in her traditional konoha uniform of black shorts and her red top with the O symbol shinning brightly on the back. She stared at the old man as he entered the field, he had changed too, into his ninja uniform of all black with the sands emblem of an I on his left pectoral. Underneath all that robing was a old man built like a 20 something year old ninja. He was strong, and ripped. It had surprised not only sakura but everyone else at the mansion when she first saw him in the uniform but she soon let it pass.

"are you ready?" he asked.

" are you?" she retorted as he smirked.

"okay then, first one to the ground, wins" he stated.

"no," she said, too calm and too bluntly. Temari sat straight up, nervous for her friend.

Ebizo looked at her in confusion," what is your bet then, leafy?"

She cringed at the name," first one to forfeit."she smiled as his face grew weary.

He soon unclenched his fist and yelled back, "fine."

He didn't exactly give her a heads up when he began, she wasn't expecting the blow to the stomach.

As she slammed into a nearby tree, she had to breath deeply quickly. He had knocked the wind out of her," since when do you not play fair?"

"I didn't realize we were still playing games," he smirked.

She didn't charge him, which surprised him. 'that's usually her counter attack for every one of my attacks.'

Instead she unattached herself from the tree walked about three feet and then suddenly hit the ground beneath her, causing the rock to crack open all the way to him. And it wasn't stopping he had to jump back a couple of paces to keep from falling into the fault line she created. She caught his shocked face and smirked ever so slightly at him," fine, then I guess the games off. Lets get real." she slowly stood up pulling her hand out of the ground and started making hand signs that he did not recognize. As she came closer to him she slowed her pace with the hand signs making a repetitive pattern with the signs, all in all she was humming almost meditating in a way. It was when ever she began to pull out the rolled up scroll, is when Ebizo began to panic.

"STOP," he yelled. But she didn't stop, she continued with her signs in the constant pattern he soon enough remembered.

"I FORFEIT, I QUIT JUST STOP," he yelled again. Only this time she did stop. She gazed at her broken teacher. Now on the ground at her feet begging her to stop the jutsu she was about to perform.

He was gasping for air, trying to bring his heart beat back down before he had a heart attack. He looked around them only to see every guard, a few citizens and the three siblings of the sands watching as he begged for his life from his student, who now he could say had surpassed him.

She was shocked, she never would have believed it could have been this easy, she didn't think it would have worked but it did. He began to stand up, and as she took a staggering step back he came at her not to attack her, but to hug her.

" you've done well, very well," he explained," now go home."

She looked up into his eyes and she saw that he was completely sincere," you should be in konoha, they need you leafy. They need their strongest ninja there. Now go." he released her and she ran back inside the mansion straight to her room to pack her things.

As she started grabbing everything out of her closet and her dresser she was tearing up,' I'm going home.'

All in all, she wanted to go back. She wanted to be apart of the village she loved so much. She was ready to return, and of course prove she wasnt dead.

"ill escort you back," sakura heard from behind her, she quickly turned to temari at the doorway, " with some guards of course."

She walked quickly to temari and hugged her, "thank you," she whispered.

Temari only smiled back and turned to go down the hall, ' to get her things,' sakura assumed.

As sakura quickly began to pack again she felt a sudden jolt of chakra in the room.

" you know, I knew youd go home soon," she stared at the red headed Kazak age sitting on her bed.

"oh yeah, well why didn't you tell me?" she asked as she continued to empty out her night stand. She then put the picture of her favorite team on top of the bag.

He grabbed the picture and smirked at it, turning it to where she could see it," this is why."

She smiled at him, " you had to find out for yourself teme, we all know you don't like to be told certain things. Especially when "he" is involved," he explained.

She stopped at the doorway to her bathroom to look back at him, "what?"

"it nothing, don't worry about it," he mumbled as he set the picture inside the bag instead of on top of it. He got off the bed and went over to sakura, she noticed how much taller he was then her now.' random thought,' she smirked.

"what?" he asked her as he saw the smirk on her face.

" oh nothing, im just going to miss you gaara," she said with a smile.

"ha, come here," he opened his arms for a hug. As she entered them to return the embrace he whispered in her ear," im going to miss you too, leafy."

He laughed when he felt the sudden pressure against his lower back where she had tightened her grip,' she really does hate that name,' he laughed again.

When gaara had finally left, which took him forever to leave. ' he really doesnt want me to go,hmm,' sakura thought,'well anyways.' once he finally left she was able to finish packing, after she handed the rest of her stuff to the guards she went back to her room to check to make sure she didn't leave anything. Her room was completely bare and so was her closet. She went to the bathroom to check the cabinets and drawers, she got to the very last drawer when something caught her eye. 'a piece of cloth?' she wandered. She started to pull the cloth that was in the drawer only to find it was stuck on something, she began to pull and tug on the red piece until finally she had to pull the whole drawer out. Whatever it was got stuck behind the drawer. She finally figured out the drawer and took it out of its compartment, she set it on the counter. She then reached into the open space, grabbing onto the red piece of fabric and pulled it out. She gasped and held the fabric to her chest with care, after she put the drawer back she took a rag and began to dust off the metal plate at the front of the fabric. She smiled when she saw the hidden leaf village mark clear as day. She thought she had lost it, she was sad for days when it happened. And now here she was, going home and she found her very own forehead protector. The one she always wore, it was like this is where she needed to be, she needed to be in konoha. And with that she tied the protector in its rightful spot on her head, tying underneath her hair like a head band. She looked in the mirror of her old bathroom one more time and shot the pretend guns at herself and winked," looking good," she said as she smirked at her silliness. She sighed as she walked out of the room she stayed In for so long and she took a deep breath as she walked out of the mansion toward her " going home team" as she called them. She made sure to turn around and wave to gaara before she left and smiled to herself as she turned back around to meet temari on the pathway towards home.


	7. Chapter 6:THE HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE

**Chapter 6**-_The hidden leaf village_

"so what are you trying to say exactly, I don't quite understand?" asked the hokage.

She had an early morning meeting with the head nurse of the konoha hospital to discuss the autopsy report on sakura's body.

"im saying the body had no traces of any kind of information about konoha, its almost like the body has never been here before lady hokage," stated the nurse.

As she slammed both fist on the top of her desk she rose from her chair," stop refering to her as "the body" this is sakura-chan we are talking about, so show some respect."

" I would show her the greatest amount of respect, IF the body belonged to sakura-chan," stated the female nurse.

It took tsunade a moment to understand, she had to fit it all together in her mind. But after staring out the window of her hokage office she spun around to face the nurse again," its not her."

The nurse smiled," no its not her."

" but, but how?" asked tsunade as she took a seat back at her desk.

The nurse came over to the front of the desk and laid both palms on the top in order to lean forward to discuss the issue in a more private manner.

" from what I can figure out is the person who died put a transfermation technique on themselves, to secure their body. They had changed into some one they had met most recently, who happened to be our pink haired shin obi. The person knew they would transport the body to the leaf village so that we may keep it safe." stated the nurse.

"safe, from what do you suppose?" asked the hokage.

"who knows, I havent gotten that far into the autopsy," said the nurse.

"well continue the procedure, and let me know of any information you have found. But proceed with caution. I know your theory sounds liable, but we must be on our toes. We don't know the real reason for the body," stated tsunade as she rose from her desk to dismiss the nurse.

After the nurse left, tsunade opened her top left drawer and withdrew a picture. She sat back down in her chair and turned it towards the window," where are you?" she wandered out loud. Before she looked back out at the beautiful village she called home she couldn't help but stare at the picture of her and shizune posing with a certain young pink haired shin obi.

Sakura wasent nervous, not at all. She had kept up the calm breathing technique to help her heart, so it wouldn't pump out of her chest. Which also made it to where she wasent nervous in any way, which she was grateful for. But now, as temari and the rest of the guard behind her came to a sudden stop a good half mile from the gates, she started to tremble.

" temari,"she glanced back at her blonde friend," come on, we still have a small way to go."

But temari wasn't moving," are you sure your ready for this?" asked a worried temari.

"yes, I am. I want to go home," stated sakura. She had now moved to stand directly in front of temari.

"well then okay sakura," said a sad blonde," this is where I leave you. You must make this walk alone."

"what, why?" asked sakura.

"because sakura, from what tsunade thinks you havent been with us in awhile. Gaara doesn't want there to be any bad tastes left in her mouth. Hes just thinking of the village, you understand right?" temari asked her friend as she reached for both of sakura's hands.

"yeah, I get it. Ill just say ive been traveling," smiled sakura.

And with that temari bent forward to hug her friend goodbye, for now.

" there is no goodbye here, this is a see you soon," smiled temari.

" yeah, a catch up with you later type thing," sakura smiled back.

Sakura pulled away only to turn back to konoha and continue the walk towards home. She stopped for a brief moment to wave at temari who was still standing where they said thier farewell. And as she continued her walk she debated on going straight to the hokage tower or to her apartment. ' hmm maybe it would be best to go see tsunade to kind of let them know im not dead and that im back. Its less of a blow that way.'

But as she began to see the top of the infamous konoha gates, she found herself trembling once again. She stopped a couple feet from the entrance to gaze at the building just inside her home. ' im home,' she sighed. And as she began to move forward she heard something she didn't expect.

"sakura-chan?" came a voice behind her, sakura stopped. She knew that voice, and she suddenly became frozen.


	8. Chapter 7:HOME

**Chapter 7- **_home _

Sakura didn't know what to do, so she just stood there. She tried to think of a way to turn around and seem smooth, you don't exactly just jump for joy when a somewhat concerned voice says your name. she finally just gave up and turned around slowly.

"kakashi-sensei," yelled sakura and she leaped at him for a very unexpected hug.

Kakashi chuckled as he returned the hug," my have you changed, and brunette I see."

He eyed her up and down taking note of her differences and similarities to the old sakura verses the new sakura.

" so your back, I presume," kakashi said.

"yep, im back. And also here to clear the rumors," stated sakura after releasing kakashi.

"yea, I remember hearing that you were deceased. So how does it feel to be back from the dead?" asked kakashi as he began walking beside sakura towards the front gates.

" tired," sighed sakura.

"ha ha I can imagine it was quite a trip," teased kakashi. But suddenly kakashi stopped and glanced behind him," maybe we should wait here a few minutes."

He kept glancing behind them, waiting for something. It only took sakura a moment to realize who he was waiting for.

" oh um I cant kakashi, I must get to tsunade before anyone else finds out im here. Im sure she would like to know as soon as I enter the city," she began to walk faster towards the gates leaving kakashi where he stood." but ill catch up with you later, bye."

She practically ran through the gates and towards the hokage mansion, trying to stay out of sight of a certain blonde haired ninja. She knew kakashi would probably tell him, but she would rather not be there when he find out. She was a coward, and she knew it.

' I don't know what to make of this silly situation,' thought tsunade as she slowly walked down the hallway to her office.

She had received the news yesterday morning about the mysterious sakura look alike body not being the actual real sakura. She was still dumbfounded, she couldn't make sense out of anything. Every theory she had come up with just sounded ridiculous, maybe shed have to send shizune out on some research once she found out what country the body was ACTUALLY from.

"stop it, you don't know what your doing. Im the real sakura," shouted an all too familiar voice.

Tsunade began a brisk walk to the source of the outburst, and as she rounded the corner to her office she blurted out," what is going on here."

The hokage stopped dead in her tracks the minute light brown locked with bright green.

"sakura," the hokage whispered.

"lady hokage, please tell these men that I am the real sakura haruno and that im not dead. Im very much alive as you can see," sakura yelled, as she struggled in the ANBU guards grasp.

He had her arms locked behind her in a tight grip and had her shoved against the wall. As the second ANBU guard turned to the hokage he stated," we found her wandering the hallway to your office. We didn't want any assassination attempts, we took extreme precaution."

Sakura hissed," I would never in my life try such a thing."

As the guard began to yell at sakura to shut her mouth tsunade ordered , " let her go.".

As he released her she stuck her tongue out at the guard, only to turn back to the hokage.

She stepped forward as she said, "lady tsunade.."

But she was interrupted by lady hokage gripping in quite possibly the tightest hug sakura has ever received. When she was finally released tsunade whispered," thank god your back," she smiled.

As sakura stared at the hokage she didn't realize just how much she was missed.

"ahem," someone fake coughed for attention behind the two hugging women.

As they released their embrace the hokage turned to the guards," you are dismissed, ill take it from here." as the guards started to leave the hokage stopped them," and if the blonde haired brat comes by, say shes already gone to her apartment."

Sakura was confused, " you don't want him to see me yet?"

"no, I want to talk to you first. And naruto hasent changed much, he will yell and rant until he finds out answers for everything and anything. I would really like some peace and quiet for now," tsunade smirked.

Sakura only laughed ," he hasent changed much then I assume."

"nope, not at all," laughed the hokage as she unlocked her office door and entered it with a very eager sakura behind her.

And as sakura started to close the door she heard from a curious voice behind her, " so a brunette now, huh?" sakura only began to laugh some more and replied," it's a long story."


	9. Chapter 8:REUNION

Okay let me know what yall think. It took me a while to figure out how I was gonna do this….let me know if you think I should change anything…..I feel like its kinda incomplete….but that's also ok, that means mooooore chaptersJ……. love you guys. And thanks so so sooooo much for the reviews, makes me want to right oodles moreJ!!

**Chapter 8- **_Reunion_

It was weird to sakura, to be standing in the doorway to her very own apartment after all this time. Everything was the same, to the cherry wood dining room table to her left to the deep purple couch and loveseat to her right. And straight ahead was the hallway to her bedroom and bathroom. After she shut the door and made her way to the bedroom to set down her things, she took note of how dusty everything was. Even her reflection in the mirror that was hung up in her hallway, was blurred by the debris. Once she entered her room she was in awe, literally everything was the same. All the way to the pencil laying on top of her desk, ' I always did forget to put it back in the drawer where it belonged,' she thought.

After she set her bag on the bed she knew shed have some major cleaning to do, when she noticed the dust roll out from under her bag and off the bed, 'ew.'

' where should I start,' she sighed. She then walked over to her almost full wall sized windows and opened the curtains only to cough as she was completely covered in dust and dirt. ' well, better now then never,' she thought as she went to the linen closet in the hallway and grabbed a bucket and bunch of dust rags. just as a knock sounded at her door, ' just perfect,' she scoffed hoping it wasent the blonde haired male shinobi.

......................................................................................................................................................

Sakura didn't know how it happened, but it did. Her entire apartment was clean from top to bottom, she was in awe. She missed her home so much, to the lavender walls to the sand colored carpet and all the way to picture of her deceased parents that hung above her sofa on the far wall. She was a little relieved when sai showed up to see if the rumors where true about her return. 'poor guy,' thought sakura as she remembered shoving a spray can of disinfectant in his left hand and a rag in his right. He was only there for two hours but it made so much of a difference. She was still surprised that her blonde, loudmouth comrade had not made an appearance.

'Maybe he isn't so ecstatic about my return like I thought he would be. Maybe I will just leave him alone. Ive done enough to him, hes happy now. And I don't want to ruin it,' she sighed.

"so, what now," sakura thought out loud. 'hmm,' maybe dinner would be a good idea. As she made her way to the kitchen she stopped in mid step as she noticed a box laying on her kitchen table. As she made her way over to the table she looked around to see if the missing owner of the item was still in the room,' sai must have left it.'

She reached for the box with shaking hands, ' should I assume its safe?'

She slowly took the lid off only to gasp in shock. Inside the box was a picture frame with sai, kakashi, her and naruto. She took the picture and set it on top of the bookcase that was connected to her entertainment center. She moved it slightly so that it was slanted in the direction she wanted, ' maybe I should….'

"nah," she said aloud. She continued on her quest for food instead of proceeding with the sudden thought that popped in her head. But as she opened the refrigerator the thought came back suddenly, and as she stood there in the fridge doorway debating.

"damnit," moaned a frustrated sakura, ' fine.'

She came around the kitchen to slide on her shoes and grabbed her keys, and out the door. She only stopped for a second to buy some to go ramen and a quick bushel of pink roses thinking to herself the whole way, ' this is so stupid, why have I been putting this off. Oh right because his reactions scare the crap out of me.'

She was freaking out, sure. Her heart was racing a hundred miles an hour the whole walk. But as she stood in front of the home and just stared at the slide door, her heart stopped beating all together.

'whew, just breath,' she reminded herself as she walked up the pathway to the house.

............................................................................................................................

'knock, knock.'

"I wander who that is," murmered naruto from his seat at the dinner table.

"are you expecting anyone?" asked his very curious dark haired wife.

"no, not tonight," he answered while exiting the dining room to answer the door.

'knock, knock, knock.'

"coming," sakura heard from the other side of the door.

Sakura began to think, ' okay this was a bad idea. But its too late now.'

As the door creaked open sakura's heart began to race, ' okay breathe, it will be fine. He's still your best friend for goodness sake.'

Naruto didn't know what to say as he stared at the once pinkette but was now a brunette girl.

" Hi," she said with a smile. " I just thought id come by and say hello and congratulations about the baby and such," she said,' he looks different.'

Naruto just stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

' he knew I was back, I guess this is a bigger shock then I figured,' she thought as she took in the new naruto, such as his longer hair and more masculine facial features. He was bigger in size too, looking very muscular and about 6 inches taller then when she left. 'why didn't I notice at the hokage dinner,' she wandered.

"well I brought hinata-san some flowers and some of your favorite ramen to-go," she said as she lifted the flowers and ramen to show what she was referring to.

"im sorry, naruto. I shouldn't have come. I just thought….well I don't know what I was thinking," she admitted.

As she turned to leave she heard in the faintest voice ," sakura-chan…"

She stopped and turned around only to have her eyes lock with a certain dark haired ninja, green locked with grey.

'wow, she looks exactly the same,' thought sakura as she stared at the beautiful girl in front of her. Hinata's hair had grown down to her mid back and her face hadn't really changed except she looked older, more mature in a way. Sakura took notice of her left hand holding her very rounded belly, cradling the unborn child.' I really wasent paying attention AT ALL at the dinner,' thought sakura.

"please, come in. im so happy you came," she glanced at her stiff husband, " im sure naruto is too, hes just in shock, " hinata giggled.

'wow she has changed, she's a lot more outgoing,' she thought, smiling as she glanced back and forth between the husband and wife,' he must have rubbed off on her.'

"um,are you sure?" sakura mumbled.

"of course, please come in," hinata begged.

As sakura walked towards the open doorway. Naruto pressed himself against the panel to allow more room. She handed the flowers and ramen to hinata, " the flowers are for you of course."

"they're beautiful, thank you," hinata said as she hugged sakura.

Once hinata left to take the ramen and flowers into the kitchen, sakura assumed, she then entered the home.

"you have a beautiful home," sakura said trying to make small talk as naruto closed the door.

"…"

" so how is everyone else," she said as she began to walk more into the house, looking at the pictures along the walls.

When naruto didn't answer she stopped and turned to him only to be almost knocked over by the blonde shin obi.

It wasn't until she felt him pull her tighter and rest his chin on the top of her head, that she came out of shock and returned the embrace.

"naruto why doesn't sakura join us for…." hinata began to say but was caught off guard as she entered the hallway only to see her husband practically wrapping himself around the female ninja.

Sakura and naruto embraced for a minute, or two longer, then finally released only to have their arms slide open to where their hands held.

"thank you, " he finally said." and please stay and eat with us."

"I would love to," she replied," I'm actually starving, I almost ate your ramen on the way over here."

The three laughed at the comment and then headed towards the table, once naruto let go of her hand she sat down.

Sakura sat to the left of him and hinata sat on his right, he reached for hinatas hand and held it on top of the table.

Hinata was a very good cook, she had made a sort of casserole with veggies and chicken, it was delicious.

" this is amazing hinata, you have to let me borrow the recipe," sakura commented as she took her last bite of her second helping.

" oh, no problem. Its one of naruto's favorites, ill be more the happy to lend it out," she said.

Sakura smiled at the dark haired shin obi,' she's definitely changed.'

_30 minutes later…._

" Would you like me to take your plate?" asked a very gentle voice, causing naruto and sakura to look up from their very intense conversation about sakura and ebizo's "training methods."

"of course, thanks," he replied. He leaned back to give her room to the plate but at the last second snuck a quick kiss on the cheek as his 'true' thank you. Sakura couldn't help but grin ear to ear.

"thank you," sakura said after hinata came around the table and took her plate as well, " it was delicious and don't forget, I want the recipe."

" ill write it down for you when I finish with the dishes," hinata smiled back.

Sakura smiled in return and turned back to naruto to finish her story, " so that's how I learned the spring leaf. All by accident."

Naruto laughed, " well atleast you have your own jutsu."

" you do too. What about the many rasengan's," stated sakura with her left eyebrow raised.

He replied watching her grab her drink to take a sip," copied. Well sort of. The fourth, my father, came up with the rasengan before and just never perfected it. I merely completed the task of fully finishing it. Its not my own jutsu, even though it does have my little perks," he smirked.

"true, but still. Its yours, no matter what anybody says," she stated.

"If you say so sakura-chan," he smiled. She smiled back thinking ,' I sure have missed you, naruto-kun.'

It was a little while later in the middle of one of his many stories about various missions since shes been gone, that she slowely reached for his hand. Stopping him completely in mid sentence because her sudden approach and face worrying him.

"what is it sakura-chan, whats wrong?" he asked placing his hand on top of hers, sandwiching it between both of his.

" its just….are you okay naruto-kun? I mean me being back doesn't bother you, does it?" she asked with sad eyes.

He stared back at her with shock all over his face," what do you mean? of course not. Im surprised yeah but im also so happy your back," he replied while reaching one hand to the back of his head, scratching in confusion.

" are you sure, I was afraid id like traumatize you," she said lowering her head.

"why would you think that?" he asked while bending his head really low to try to make eye contact with her.

She looked up and started to mumble ," well because of…..him."

It took a moment to register in his brain who "him" was, but he took notice of her now glaring at a picture along the wall. The blown up team 7 picture was a gift from hinata on their one year anniversary. Sure it had nothing to do with him and hinata's relationship, but she knew it would please him, and it did after the pain settled.

"sakura im not giving up, I can save him you know," he said glancing back her. He watched her glare at the young sasuke uchiha for a very good minute before he slightly put it finger underneath her chin and turned her head to look at him," I will. I don't break my promises."

Sakura sighed," he isn't worth saving anymore uzumaki-san."

Naruto smiled knowing the subject was not to be spoken of for awhile, be he also knew that sakura was hiding,' true feelings will come out sometime.' and with that thought he smiled watching hinata walk back to her seat. ' the really do,' he smiled taking her hand. He laughed when he saw the sly smirk show up on her face almost like he knew what she was thinking.

"you two are weird," huffed sakura in a joking tone as she watched the two lovebirds.

Sakura began her walk to her apartment shortly after that, after getting too creeped out by the "new" naruto and his "mature" behavior.

" its just not right," she laughed.

that's when the last few minutes of the visit flashed back into her mind, making her heart tighten.

_Flashback_

_Naruto and grown serious as he walked sakura to the door," make sure that the next time something big goes down. Like you coming home for instance, make sure YOU tell me and no sai."_

_She just looked at him," I thought seinsei told you?"_

_"no, sai came over after he left your apartment. Completely beat and gross and asked if I would go help in his felt bad leaving you with such a disgusting apartment," he smirked._

_"it wasent that bad," she stated with her hands on her hips._

_Naruto simply raised his eyebrows in response._

_"okaaaay, it was worse. But still, I cant believe seinsei didn't tell you. He knew before everybody," she responded._

_Naruto got a very angry and yet shocked look on his face," he did?" he asked through clenched teeth._

_'uh oh,' sakura thought." well im sure he wanted me to tell you on my own, make this as easy as possible." she stated trying to calm him down. He didn't move, he just stood there like a statue in the middle of the hallway. With the angry look on his face, he looked 10 years older, scary even._

_"na-na-naruto?" sakura asked trying to gain his attention. She even resorted to waving her hands in his face._

_"hinata-chan…" sakura yelled as she continued to shake the boy._

_"oh he gets like this, he will snap out of it in a second," hinata stated as she came around the corner. As she leaned against the wall to watch the two former team mates, she stated," better move out of the way."_

_"huh," said sakura as she glanced at the girl. But sakura was too late, she was pushed into the wall with a thud. When she looked to see what caused her imbalance, all she saw was the door wide open and a flash of blonde and orange. She began to laugh as she made it outside the front door watching the blur and listening to his rants and raves about ' I was with him all day today and he didn't say ONE SINGLE THING. Im going to kill that seinsei.'_

_Sakura was besides her self,' theres the naruto I know. Always loud and obnoxious,' she sighed at the thought. Happy with how the night turned out._

_'im home and every thing is as it was supposed to be,' she smiled._

_She began to walk down the street back towards her home when she stopped remembering to wave goodbye to hinata. She turned around to see her leaning against the door panel,' good bye hinata-san. Ill see you tomorrow then."_

_Hinata came towards sakura to embrace her in a hug, she whispered in sakura's ear ," hes going to make sure he keeps that promise you know."_

_Sakura froze, " theres nothing to save hinata."_

_As they released their embrace, sakura began to walk away again._

_" hes not just doing it for you sakura-chan," hinata called out._

_Sakura turned around to respond with, " if he wanted to do something positive he would kill the bastard instead. After all the pain hes caused, a little wouldn't hurt him in return."_

_And with that sakura walked back to her home, leaving a shocked uzumaki on her doorstep._

_flashback over_

she sighed when she finally reached her apartment she thought,' HE will not be the reason i tell naruto the truth. it will be for naruto, to help him understand even if it hurts._'_

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

"shit," yelled sasuke as he sat straight up in his bed..

'its back,' he thought as he began to rub the bridge of his nose. He got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face. He had been staying at a hotel in some little town not too far from the leaf. His "gang" also known as team snake, had been camping in the woods for cover. Their leader on the other hand got tip top treatment, he wasent going to sleep in the cold ever again. that's how he thought of the nights in the hide outs of orichimaru. 'it was always so cold,' he thought at the memory.

As he went to sit back down on the bed he opened the window on the far right side of the room.

"not too much longer," he stated.

And with that he laid back down on the bed, daydreaming of a certain pink haired shin obi. He was hoping the ending this time would not be the same, he would kill himself before seeing what he saw in that nightmare in reality. And with that he slowly dazed back into bliss, with his cherry blossom.


	10. Chapter 9:THE MISSION

Chapter 9 - THE MISSION

"hn…"mumbled sakura as she shot her head up to stare in the direction towards konoha.

'What is that…." she thought. She had been at the one of the many training grounds of the ninja academy. She had come up with a new teaching technique for one of her fellow team members, and being the good seinsei , she was perfecting it to make sure there were no flaws.

But when a sudden tugging on her heart pulled her to stare at the pathway back to her village, she became worried.

"what's wrong sakura-chan?" asked a very concerned sai. He had come to help her with the layout of the place, and also to lend his special "scouting" techniques, to get a wider range of the area.

"I don't know, I just feel like.." she stopped in mid sentence to whip her head back toward konoha as another tug pulled on her.

She started power walking in the direction towards the pull ," something's wrong sai."

Its wasn't till she went into a dead run that sai began to follow, catching up shortly after.

The pull became more forceful as she got closer to the wall," we have to hurry," she called back.

After jumping over the wall they began to make it to the center of the city. "wait," she said as she stopped and slowly turned to the left.

"its coming from this way," she said as she began to walk faster and faster towards the "pull".

They walked for a good ten minutes before the pulling finally seized in front of the most unlikely place.

Her home, well her new home. She had only moved in after some serious begging from her husband. They had only been married for four months and she had made it very clear that she DID NOT want to move into his estates mansion. Only because of the history, it was too haunting for her and she knew it would stir something awake in him that she was too afraid to see. But he had talked her into it, she didn't know how he had done it. But she found herself almost two weeks ago, unpacking all her things into the house and cleaning like crazy, trying to scrub away anything that might cause memories to awaken in his mind.

'okay sakura, back to the problem at hand,' she thought to herself to pull herself back to the present.

"well this is the last place I want a nasty feeling pulling me towards," she stated.

"the uchiha estate," said sai as he stepped up beside her.

She began to walk towards the double doors only to be halted by a moan of agony,' sasuke…'

She slammed open the door to the house and walked straight into the living room, trying to find the owner of the moan.

"sasuke-kun.." she yelled. The moan came again.

"I think it came from upstairs," sai said as he followed sakura to the stairs taking two at a time to the second floor.

She started opening every door on the left and sai took the right side of the hallway. They had reached every single door and met at the last door in the hallway. Her and sasuke's bedroom.

She looked at sai ," on the count of three," he nodded in response.

"one," she began. "two," she said a little bit more softly.

She then mouthed ,"three."

They both kicked in the bed room doors, she did the left he kicked in the right.

It was when her eyes adjusted to the sunlight radiating from the huge bay windows on the opposite wall that she saw a sight that she feared more then anything in the world.

Sasuke was laying on his side, his back to her and he was in the fetal position. He was badly beaten and she could tell he was losing a lot of blood by the large puddles on the floor beneath him.

She tried her hardest to keep the cry from coming out, she didn't want to seem weak because the violent abuser was still in the room. Sure he may not have been in sight, but she could sense him in the room.

She did sigh when she heard sasuke moan once more though, ' oh thank god, we came just in time.'

She took a couple steps forward and looked around the room as she made her way to her husband, sai was behind her watching her back with his kunai in hand.

She stepped around sasukes head trying not to step in his blood. She kneeled down towards him and placed her hand on his right shoulder.

"sasuke-kun.." she mumbled as she forced him on his back to look at his wounds.

He eased over onto his back and barely opened his eyes into little slits just enough to see his wife's face. Sakura almost burst into tears as she thought, 'he's so weak, he's wounds most be more severe then I thought.'

"sakura-chan.."he mumbled as best as he could before reaching up and touching a lock of her hair. His hand suddenly dropped and he closed his eyes, letting his head slip to the side as if he fell asleep.

"sasuke.." she choked. Her hands began to glow green as she searched for a heartbeat.

"no…no…"she began to whimper while she searched. She couldn't find a heartbeat at all.

"tsk..tsk…tsk.." said a strange voice from nowhere." its sad isn't it, poor uchiha couldn't stand to see his beloved killed so he begged for his life to be taken instead."

Sakura began to cry with such force that she collapsed on top of her husbands lifeless body, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. She noticed that she was crying on sasuke's face when she touched her forehead to his, she couldn't help it. She had lost her reason for living, her reason for well…..everything. And it was all because he wanted to protect her, once again she was weak.

"damn you," she yelled as she hit sasuke's chest," damn you I can take care of myself."

"awe, how sweet." said the voice," so now your upset because he wanted to protect you instead of letting you be killed off like the rest of his useless clan."

Sakura was beginning to get angry, she sat back on her ankles to look at sasuke's face, she whispered, "this is for you."

Sakura rose from sitting position, turned once she was back on her feet to face the bay windows out into konoha.

"sai," she stated demanding the mans attention, " leave the room and make sure that you go to the hospital and tell tsunade to be here as soon as possible."

Sai was dumbfounded ," but sakura, im not leaving you to die."

"tell tsunade to please be here as soon as possible," she stated once again, " only she can save him."

There was a moment of silence when sakura began to get more and more angry ,' why isn't he leaving.'

"go, NOW," she said once again as she sharply turned around to face the pale former anbu black ops member.

He quickly left the room, he had learned early on when joining team 7 that once sakura reached a certain point of anger, you don't mess with her.

When the double doors closed once again she looked around the room in search of the killer.

"I see," she said calmly, "you can make sick comments about what you've done but when it comes to facing the consequences you hide like a coward."

"I have no reason to hide little ninja, I only like to play games with my prey," the voice stated.

She walked around in a circle trying to pinpoint the location of the voice," then come out."

Since the sun was going down she was not be able to see the whole left side of the room, it was all shadow. It wasn't very long after she had noticed this that she heard shuffling from the bed.

'the sick bastard, he was laying in OUR bed,' she scoffed.

She waited as she watched the shadow come towards her from the shadows.

She gasped as she saw the figure step into the light, she would have never imagined, "….YOU."

The image only smiled and chuckled ," are you really that surprised, sakura-chan."

The girl shot upright from her bed in a cold sweat. She was breathing so hard and she had tears coming form her eyes.

"oh my gosh, oh my go…" she was trying to breathe as she laid her left hand over her chest, but the air wasn't reaching her lungs in time.

'okay, breathe…slowly sakura….breathe…in and out,' she said over and over in her head.

Once her body had finally calmed down, she started to rub her temples as a massive headache began.

She got out of bed and went across the hall to her bathroom to retrieve the aspirin.

She washed her face to help cool her down, and to calm her nerves that were still in freak out mode.

She left the water running in the sink as she reached in the cupboard to take out the aspirin.

While she reached down to the sink and cupped some water in one hand as she downed the aspirin.

'what is wrong with me,' she thought as she stared back at herself in the mirror over her sink.

She had been having the same nightmare for the past three days, ever since she left the uzumaki house. She didn't know why she was having such a nightmare, or what it meant. She just wanted it to go away, it was clouding her mind of thoughts and memories of the person she despised the most and she wanted him out.

She took one more look at herself and cut off the sink before making her way back to her bed. As she laid down and got comfortable, kicking the blankets off because it was still hot, she thought , 'the only good thing that happened was that he was dead. I'm just sorry that I didn't get to be the one that ended his 'revenge'……"

And with that she fell into a peaceful sleep, not once dreaming of the uchiha again the rest of the night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He had been walking around for awhile, just thinking about his next choice of action.

He now had his team and he had his techniques down to a key, he wasn't nervous at all.

'I'm ready,' he thought.

He had circled the pond almost three times when he finally branched off towards the forest in search of his team. He had left them back in the city to rest up and eat before they went in search for itachi.

He had been walking for about ten minutes when he came into a clearing.

' well damn,' he thought as he began to smirk.

The clearing was a beautiful open meadow, full of various trees and flowers. But the only thing he noticed were the massive amounts of cherry blossom trees.

He walked up to the closest one and reached out and lowered one of its many branches.

He plucked a flower off and brought it to his face to smell the scent. It didn't really have a strong smell, but that didn't matter. He could only smell her when he brought the fragile flower to his face.

"soon," he said as he walked through the trees and back the village to gather his team, flower in hand.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"everything is as planned," said a very demanding voice, "he has agreed to meet you."

"the destination?" asked a very calm green eyed shin obi.

Tsunade looked back at her former apprentice for a minute before taking out a map and unrolling it onto her desk, Sakura walked over to overlook the map. "he will meet you here but I suggest you still approach with caution," said the hokage.

"of course," replied sakura as she tucked the map into her backpack and placed it back on her right shoulder.

"no one else is allowed to know about this mission. If anyone asks," said the hokage.

'meaning naruto,' inner sakura thought with a smirk.

"you are just taking some information to the fire temple for me," tsunade continued the order.

Sakura replied with a head nod.

"this is a one shot mission sakura. He wants his story told and im the only one willing to hear it," stated tsunade as she turned her chair towards the windows overlooking her village. She stood up keeping her eyes on konoha as she said, " I know the truth about what really happened. No one else knows the real story. I want his side, the complete detail of his orders."

" the real story?" sakura wandered.

" not everything is as it seems sakura," stated the hokage as she turned to face the ninja," and you also will learn the truth from this. I don't know how you are going to take it."

Sakura lowered her head in confusion, " will he be alone?"

" yes," the blonde replied, " but use caution. With itachi, you never know what he is really thinking."

Sakura raised her head, nodded to her hokage and turned to leave the room.

"sakura…"a voice came behind her, making her stop half way out the door.

She turned to tsunade in response to her name. "be safe," stated the hokage with worry in her eyes.

Sakura smiled, bowed the top part of her body slightly and said ," yes sir."

And with that she left the room, she knew where she was going, still scared stiff at the thought of who she was meeting.' I can do this,' she thought, ' I have to do this.'

With fear and anger in her eyes, she left konoha to the lost sand dunes of death circle valley to meet with the most deadliest person she had ever heard of.

The eldest Uchiha….the murderer…..Itachi.


	11. UPDATE!

_**IM SO, SOOOOOO SORRY YOU GUYS. I HAVENT HAD LIKE ANYTIME TO UPDATE THE STORY. IVE BEEN WORKING SO MUCH AND YEAH IVE JUST BEEN IM HERE AND I HAVE A TON OF IDEAS….NOW REMEMBER THIS IS MY SOTRY AND ITS SOMEWAT TO THE REAL NARUTO BUT IM CHANGING IT AROUND TO HOW "I" WANT IT TO BE….OH AND I HOPE YALL ARE STAYING UP TO DATE ON THE EPISODES…SASUKE IS SHOWING HIS TRUE COLORS YALL….BUT HES STILL MY FAV…GOTTA LOVE A BAD BOY**__**J…….WELL STAY TUNED…THINGS ARE ABOUT TO HEAT UP IN WAYS YOU WOULD NEVER PREDICT….THINKS FOR ALL THE AWESOME COMMENTS AND ETC….I LOVE IT THAT YALL LOVE ITJ….**_

_**LOVE YA!**_


	12. Chapter 10:TIME

Chapter 10: TIME

"I don't see why we have to stay in the shitty woods," the redhead began to whine," I mean, I could be laying my beautiful head on sasuke-kun's hard chest but instead im out here, with you two."

As she looked at the two other bodies sitting around the fire, one was sharpening his blade and the other was picking at the blaze with a stick. She couldn't help but scoff and roll her eyes.

"its what the boss said to do," jugo began to say, "he wants us to not be a spectacle."

' yeah, right. He just didn't want to deal with Karin. So he left the whiney brat with us,' thought suigetsu.

"I would agree with you but I don't want to hurt the little rodents feelings," stated jugo.

Suigetsu stared back at the huge man, only to get up, latch the sword to his back and walk in the opposite direction into the forest.

"where are you going?" asked a very demanding Karin.

He didn't stop walking but responded with a ' need to take a piss' hiss to the question.

When she was about to stand with a rebel, jugo touched her left shoulder softly and slightly eased her back down to her mat on the ground.

"let him be, he needs a moment alone" juog said, still staring and poking at the fire.

Karin couldn't help but feel dissatisfied about the protest. But she caved in anyway knowing that if she got right back up jugo would probably sit her back down again.

"he has always been alone, so he doesn't know how to react to others," the giant man stated, " the only one that understand his pain is uchiha-sama. And that's how its going to stay."

Karin was silent, almost too silent. Almost exactly like the calm before a violent storm kinda silent. Then she raised herself from the ground and locked eyes with him.

"look," she yelled," I understand that you cannot control your powers and that you can read all of our thought and memories and all that other jazzy crap. But do me a favor and actually try to stay outta my head. I don't want you answering my thoughts questions."

She began to walk the opposite direction of suigetsu only to turn back around with a pointed finger at jugo.

"and another thing, do not defend me against that silver haired little twirp again. I don't care what he thinks of me. Im only here to help my sasuke-kun. And once this mission is over, you two will be nothing but a memory and me and my uchiha will be happy, alone," she stated with a very sharp left foot to the ground.

He smirked at her last comment and started chuckling when she turned her back to him and stomped off into the forest.

Needless to say the hebi team was not getting along and sasuke could care less. He had his team and they were ready, as soon at dawn approached the hunt would begin. He could already see the blood on his hands.

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Two days, that's how long shes been lost in this damn forest.

'how did this happen,' sakura wandered, ' I used to come through this forest all the time how in the hell did I get so lost.'

She didn't need to know she was lost because her ninja senses were screaming it to her. But as always sakura has to test the waters. She was sure she was just being a spaz and that the heat was getting to her, but only to become very frightened once she spotted the willow tree with the carved "x" symbol.

She had come across the tree the day before, thinking she may be lost she carved the letter with her kunai and began her journey once again only to find the tree not once or twice but three more times.

She was becoming restless and very irritated, " this is so infuriating."

As she sat down underneath her very visible "x" carving she pulled out her map to check her path.

She was on the right path but for some reason she kept looping back and she had to figure out where it is she kept taking a wrong turn.

She studied the map for a good five more minutes then folded it back up and stored it into her pouch.

"okay, this time I will make it," she stated aloud to herself.

As she began leaping once again tree to tree she made more sure to check her surroundings. As a ninja you check for danger but not the scenery. This time she was going to do something different, something more practical.

'this damn cave is around here somewhere. I should have been there this morning, this is getting ridiculous,' she thought.

A slight shimmer to the right caught her eye bringing her to a stop, but as soon as it had appeared it was gone again.

She moved towards where the shimmer was only to feel a pulling in the opposite direction. Almost like someone was trying to haul her away from the mark she was going towards. It actually felt like a large mans arm around her waist.

she stopped suddenly in realization to her own stupidity and mentally slapped herself for not using her brain.

Her home land does not have many records on the eldest uchiha's whereabouts or what not's but they do have his skills and strengths filed down. So when sakura realized that she wasn't being the good ninja and using her knowledge instead of worrying about the path rather then the ginjutsu she was obviously in, she felt a little dumb.

'way to go haruno-san, you're a real winner,' she thought to herself.

She looked around for anymore clues to her "cage", a just in case factor then made the proper hand signs.

"dispel," her voice rang out and her eyes closed for a half a second.

Once she opened them again she looked forward through the trees along the path she was supposed to have taken a couple of hours ago.

' now we are getting somewhere,' she thought happily to herself.

She walked through the forest towards the rushing river. She loved this spot more so then all the others. It was where many times before her and her comrades had stayed during missions, sasuke included.

She loved the smell of the trees and flowers, she loved looking along the river and seeing the large fish and turtles. It was so peaceful to her, her sanctuary, as she referred to it. Which was why she knew she wasent lost and was confused on the notion. She had been here so many times, she didn't need a map to show her the way. She should have known she was being tricked.

"Your such a dumbass," she mumbled to herself.

"now I wouldn't be that harsh," sakura froze at the voice behind her, " he tricks a lot of people with that genjutsu, so don't feel displeased."

Sakura gasped after she turned around to face the very large fish man. She knew she would be afraid to see itachi but him too, Now she was just petrified. What if it was a trap? To get information?

But she stood her ground, she wasnt about to wither in front of this criminal. She had a mission, and she was going to complete it.

"what do you want," she asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

"well, well looks like little bit has some gonads after all," he scoffed, " I was beginning to think the leaf had lowered their ranks. Giving out forehead protectors to crybabies, but once again, im impressed."

She began to eyeball him at this point with irritation, she knew he wasent trying to stall her on purpose but she had better things to do then to hear a giant fish make smart comments about her village.

" do not speak of us as if you know us," she stated while she tightened her fists underneath her armpits.

" oh, im not. Im here to bring you to him, " he stated with a chuckle. As he began to walk towards the mouth of the river she became confused.

With her eyebrow raised at him she called out " arent we going to the fire cave?"

He didnt answer and simply kept walking in the opposite direction of her path and the fire cave.

"ugh, fine" she mumbled and began following him. She didn't stay close but she stayed behind him enough to know his twists and turns towards where ever he was taking her. They had traveled a good three miles before he began to slow down and speak to her.

" he is very cautious about doing this, but he feels like he has to make mends," he began.

"itachi is not who you think he is, he is troubled. He has never told me why and its very rarely he speaks anyways. He may not trust a lot of people and he may seem cold at times. But he is my best friend, my comrade. I would follow him to the ends of the earth to help him. I would say protect him but theres no need for that, he doesn't need protecting," he said.

"where are you taking me?" she whispered once she was at pace with him.

"far mountain, the ritsk revine," he stated while glancing at her for a second.

She cringed. 'ritsk revine,' she thought.

It wasent a place where any traumatic thing took place, sure sasuke and kakashi trained there for a brief. But that wasent something to cringe over. It was just a cold, dark place. Where people who were crazy and suicidal visited. It had steep cliffs and sharp rocks waiting for anybody or anything to fall below to a sudden and very painful death. Some have said the place to be haunted. Others have said for the place to have been cursed. And sakura was sure that it just was not a place she wanted to be, not at all.

But she walked forward along side the fish man towards the murderer and his "epiphany."

'grrrrrreat,' she thought.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I love you, I always have" whispered the shaky voice of the youngest uchiha.

He didn't want to tell her this way, especially flat on his back dying…..but at this moment it was the only thing that just had to be said.

The battle had been long and he had finally found his revenge, only to feel more alone and more bruised then ever before.

He turned his head in the gravel towards the left of him, to look upon his only brothers lifeless dismantled body. He had waited for this moment, in so many way he wanted this to go down. But never in a million years had he imagined the actual confession of his brother to be so…just so….heartbreaking.

He tried his hardest to restrain the tears, but he was beginning to lose the fight. But just as he had to choke out a whimper, another persons cries broke the silence.

He looked down at his chest at the bright pink head of hair laying on his stomach. Her hands were over her head and they were covered in blood, his blood.

"sakura," he whispered," did you here me?"

As she began to lift her head up he saw the streaks of tears shaping her cheeks, it made his heart tighten.

"sakura…"he whispered once more.

He reached forward to wipe away some tears on her right cheek.

"how…can…you…say…that?" she choked out in between sobs." you left me there, all alone. On that damn bench…" she said but broke off in more sobs.

She stayed hovered over his body for a few more seconds, stared into his eyes….debating.

She moved so suddenly, he wouldn't have been able to track it if his sharingan wasn't activated. She was standing near the entrance to the cave now, with his back to him. He took notice that she was clutching her sides in a hugging yourself manner.

He lifted him self in sitting position, wincing as he did so. It was only now that he noticed the gaping slit through his stomach region, and his pants were soaked in blood. But he paid attention to this for only a second. He knew she was about to bolt and he wanted to make it very clear that he loved her and he wanted to give her the explanations she's always wanted to hear.

When he was sitting up fully, butt still planted to the floor. He couldn't feel his legs yet. He began to speak only to be cut off quickly.

"sakura…" he began.

"NO," she yelled as she quickly whipped around to look at him." I will not listen to this, u are a traitor and now a murderer. And I will not let you lead me on with your lies."

He looked at her stunned beyond all relief, " I am not lying to you sakura."

"oh yeah, like the all mighty sasuke uchiha could have a change of heart. If that's so then why kill him," she stated, " why kill him when u knew the truth."

He didn't know what to say, he only moved his eyes from her to his feet. He had his reasons, reasons that would upset her and make her even more furious.

"I have not had a change of heart, ive always felt this way about you. I had my reasons for doing what I did. And about my brother, I just…cant tell you," he mumbled the last part.

And with that she threw her hands in the air," of course you cant. I should have known. Once a coward, always a coward."

She began to stomp towards the entrance of the cave to make an early exit. She didn't want anything to do with him, he was not what she needed.

"sakura," came a weak voice behind her.

She stopped dead in her tracks. That voice, the longing and yet somewhat begging voice. She knew it all too well and yet even though it still struck her as intimidating it was also very luring.

She was about to begin her walk out when his voice came suddenly from behind her. But this time it wasn't the voice that stopped her, it was the arms around her waist that did it.

"sakura," he whispered into her right ear.

Here eyes closed in agony, she didn't need him. But she wanted him, wanted those words he said to her to be real.

"I will not help you on your quest," she began, " im going to go back to the leaf and tell them of itachi's death and that I was too late. You were already gone by the time I arrived."

He sighed, " sakura, I don't want you to do that."

She whirled around to face him, his arms still around her waist.

"why not," she was starting to become furious again," do you want them to catch you?"

He stared into her bright green orbs and didn't think twice about his next move.

She gasped as his quickly caught her soft lips with his. She couldn't feel anything. Not the cold air coming from the snowy season outside the cave, not his hands as they slowly crept from her waist to the sides of her face, not the thumb that was slowly rubbing her cheek, not anything. Only his lips, his hot breath coming from his nose that touched her face, only him.

When he pulled back to look at her, praying she wouldn't slap him in retaliation he was soon surprised.

She didn't slap him, no. she simply grabbed his sides and pulled him in for a hug. Quiet possibly the most warming hug he's ever had, even from his mother.

As he was standing there, slowly twisting back and forth hold her head while she hugged his waist. He whispered the words he knew he'd have to face sooner or later if he wanted his old life back. If he wanted her back, all of her.

"take me back," he said.

She pulled away slightly to look up at him, "what?"

He pulled both hands to the side of her face to cradle it once more, " take me home, sakura."

The tears fell from her eyes, she knew it was his death the minute they reached the gates. She didn't want to lose what she had just gained.

"no," she began to say.

But he cut her off with a sudden kiss to the forehead, "yes, my love. I have to, not just for you and I. but…..for naruto."

The sunlight was what woke him up, from quiet possibly the best dream he has ever had. He was a little irritated that he didn't see the happy ending, but what could the uchiha do.

"damn," he mumbled.

He slid his feet out of the covers and slid off the bed to take a shower and get ready for the day.

Today is the day they started tracking his brother, itachi.

'hopefully jugo didn't smash in Karin and silver hair's heads in last night,' he thought to himself with a smirk.

Sure he had worked with the three before for missions for the snake sannin but he had no bonds with them, not like……

He shook his head at that last thought, now was not the time to be thinking of…them….he needed to stay focused. Stay on the task at hand, the mission. He had been planning this for a long time, years to be exact. Ever since he had first began doing missions with the threesome. He knew of their strengths and weaknesses and knew what he had done when recruiting them. And he was going to make sure they were put to good use.

He sighed, ' the faster this is done, the better.'

And with that he forgot the dream he had begun the day with and focused on his brothers death instead.

'oh how im going to enjoy this…'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

' The Ritske Revine.'

"oh joy, " sakura mumbled as she began the climb the stony path up the mountain.

"its not too far up, he has been waiting patiently. So im going to apologize for his slight grumpiness," the fish man stated, " I don't think he thought it through with that genjutsu."

He began to chuckle. She glared at him," yeah, well…."

They walked a good hour before they reached the top of a cliff where a perfect archway entrance to the dark cave was nestled into the side of the mountain.

"you just keep going straight till you start seeing lanterns along the wall, once you reach those you will know your near his quarters," the big man stated.

She walked a couple steps towards the entrance before turning her gaze behind her towards him, " your not coming in with me?"

"why should I," he stated obviously. Like she didn't know the other side of the joke.

He noticed her hesitation once she turned her head back towards the cave.

He walked up beside her and gave her a friendly and yet slightly puppy pat on the top of her head," he wont hurt you. He wants to confess, not cause more pain. you'll be fine, trust me."

She scoffed, " yeah, trust you huh."

He shrugged ," either that or you fail your mission. And im thinking you're a better ninja then that…or maybe I was wrong about you all along."

He looked at her with a sly smirk on his face, knowing he had got to her with that last comment. Especially as she huffed and turned back to the cave, stomping into it.

He shook his head and chuckled as he watched her slowly enter the cave with caution.

"good luck," he whispered as he walked towards the forest back to god knows what giant fish men do.

' your not afraid, your not afraid. Its just some seriously powerful young dude with a sick past of murdering his entire clan including his parents…..your not afraid, your not afraid,' sakura kept thinking this the whole way down the extremely dark path, deeper and deeper into the cave.

She had seen a couple of little sets of glowing eyes and tried her best to ignore them as possible, she didn't need any more surprises. She needed to keep walking, towards the lanterns….only one problem. It was pitch black and there was no sign of light coming from in front of her, anywhere. Suddenly she smacked right into a sticky, wet wall.

"ewww, oooh yuck," she said angrily as she began to whip her arms up and down trying to rid herself of the gross unknown, unseeing sticky wet stuff on her arms.

It was then that she heard a hissing noise, almost like a snake when its about to attack.

She whipped her head back and forth trying to focus on the direction of the hiss. She backed up straight onto the wet, sticky wall for backside protection. The hissing just kept hissing, a long solid hiss that was coming from her…..right.

Her eyes squinted as the lanterns along the hallway to her right began to quickly light in twos. It went for a good 100 yards and ended at a large wooden door….with the uchiha crest on it.

She pushed herself from the wall and stalked down the hallway, she glanced down at her hands to see that the sticky wet stuff was of course spider webs.

'im such a spaz,' she thought.

Once she reached the door she debated on knocking or just entering. Then the frightening thought stunned her, what if this is a trap. What if on the other side of this door was the entire akatsuki….

"nahhh…" she said outloud.

' why would he go to all this trouble to get little ole' me,' she thought to herself only to stop in mid chuckle at her almost joke to herself.

She gulped and knocked three times on the door.

She had to only wait a good 12 or so seconds before the door slowly creeped open revealing a very tired looking itachi uchiha. She took notice that he was not wearing the normal black with red clouds cloak of the s-criminal group he took part in, and it was then that she realized that the fish man did not wear his either.

'hmmmm, interesting…'she thought.

"please come in haruno-sama," he motioned for her to enter while hold the door open wide for her.

She entered but quickly turned to face him as he shut and locked the door with a wood panel.

"hokage-sama said that you requested konoha's presence, that you had information that would aide the leaf village," she stated in a strong voice. She was surprised with her front, and also very pleased with it. She would have thought shed be on the ground begging for her life, but it looked like things would be turning out in her favor.

He looked back at her for a moment, making her second think her last thought only to be surprised by his next action.

"would you like some tea, or maybe some food. I assume you have been traveling for a bit what with your late presence," he stated while walking towards what she guessed as the kitchen.

"um no thank you," she stumbled on her words. He was being hospitable and proper with her? isn't he supposed to be like a criminal, a killer even?

He turned back to her and shrugged at her answer," very well then. How bout some rest, you seem tired haruno-sama."

"sakura….please," she said.

"sakura….." he replied.

After some quite minutes in awkwardness she decided to start the talking, the faster she got this done the faster she could go home and out of harms way.

"look," they both said in unison.

She laughed at her sudden realization that they said the same thing and he chuckled because he couldn't get how uncomfortable he was at that exact moment.

"look," he began," I didn't ask for konoha's presence. I don't think my choices are any of their concern anymore. They have long disowned me and I could feel nothing more then anger toward the council."

She stared at him, becoming more confused.

"then why…."she started to say.

"I think there are some things that need to be brought out into the open about the past and I know that half the people of my village will not believe me which is why I will tell you where the documents are to prove my words. But let me make myself very clear, I did not ask for konoha to come see me."

She turned her gaze to the floor," im sorry I don't understand. Is this the part where your going to torture me?"

"silly sakura, im not going to hurt you. That would only hurt the person who means the most to me, more pain," he stated while raising her chin so that she was looking back at him.

"then I guess I just don't understand," she said taking her chin back crossing her arms.

"I didn't request konoha," he began, " I requested…….you."


	13. UPDATE:GETTIN BACK ON TRACK

Hey guys…sry its been like forever since ive posted…ive had a really bad couple of months…like REALLY BAD…but um im half way done with the new chapter…its going to get quite interesting here pretty soon and im sure your all going to enjoy it…so just STAYED TUNED….thanks to all the comments…I love that the story is getting attention and positive feedbackJ…..


	14. Chapter 11:Revealing Truths

Her face felt hot, too hot. And the tears didn't help at all. She felt like her face had been beaten for the past 24 hours. Once she finally got a hold of her self, it only seemed to consume her all over again the minute she saw the top border edges of the great gates of konoha. Sakura had felt sadness before. Once when sasuke left, it felt like someone had stabbed her in the heart over and over again. The second time when her sensei told her of her parents death. And again when jaraiya was killed by the akatski leader, pein. But the pain she felt now, was not of sadness or guilt. Even though it should have been for all intensive purposes. No, she wasn't sad. She was pissed off. Everything that had happened ever since she was 12 years old, was for nothing. Sasuke wasn't on the revenge mission like he had planned, he was on a suicide note. And what pained her more, was that the suicide note wasn't sasuke's. But for the man he was hunting, his big brother, itachi.

Sakura had learned a lot of things over the past couple of days and she was eager to tell her hokage as soon as possible. But she was not looking forward to telling her best friend/teammate.

' he is going to be so angry,' she thought.

Sure he would see some light at the end of this dark tunnel but what it came down to was the fact that all of the fighting and blood shed had been for all the wrong reasons. Konoha's rookie nine shouldn't be trying to save sasuke, they should be trying to save itachi. The framed man.

And the tears kept coming, it would be worse once she started walking amongst the buildings of her home. When she reached the outside gates of the hokage's office she had to pause for a deep breathe.

' she isn't going to like this,' sakura thought to herself as she re-tucked the satchel full of scrolls under her right arm.

Knock, Knock

"Enter," came a feminine voice.

Sakura slowly creaked open the office door and peered inside. Sure a person in power is a thing to behold, but tsunade could be downright scary. And for some reason sakura had never been afraid of her, probably the only one out of all the shin obi of the fire country. But at that moment, she was petrified. sakura was shaking nonstop as she began moving forward towards her sensei's desk. Tsuande had yet to lift her head but sakura was sure she knew of her presence. You arent named sannin for your good looks.

"Lady hokage," sakura began, "I have returned with a report for you."

The hokage raised her head to look upon her apprentice, her left eyebrow raised with confusion as she noticed the trails from her eyes down her cheeks and lastly down her neck.

'it was too much for her,' tsuande thought.

"please, take a seat sakura," she stated gesturing towards the chair in front of her desk.

Sakura sat down and started giving her report while taking the satchel, opening it and placing the scrolls on the desk.

During her tale sakura stood up to roll open the largest of the scrolls to show the hokage something.

"see here," sakura pointed. "its signed by the third, you cannot dismiss it lady hokage."

"hmmm…it seems things are not what they seem ," stated tsunade while rubbing her temple.

They sat in silence for what seemed like forever until the hokage spoke up once more.

"good job, im proud of you. You can tell your team mates but be cautious. We don't need naruto causing any more chaos. He has done enough since your absense."

"yes shishou," sakura bowed.

"and sakura," tsuande said catching the young shin obi's attention, " justice will be served."

At that, sakura smiled and exited the tower to go home and take that nice hot shower she had been yearning for. But deep down, she was worried for the eldest uchiha.

' soon itachi-kun, soon.'


End file.
